0t  m  *tobtf*i  jl  . 


PRINCETON,     N.     J. 


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BV  130  .B3  1882  C.2 
Bacon,  Leonard  Woolsey,  183 
-1907. 
she     The  Sabbath  question 


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The  Sabbath  Question 


Suntrag  ©fcgerbance  autr  Suntiag  3Lafos 

A  SERMON  AND  TWO  SPEECHES 

BY 

LEONARD    WOOLSEY^BACON 

PASTOR  OF  THE   PARK   CHURCH,    NORWICH,  CONN. 


Six  Sermons  on  tije  Sahtiati}  ©uegtton 

BY    THE    LATE 

GEORGE    BLAGDEN    BACON 

PASTOR  OF  THE  VALLEY  CHURCH,  ORANGE,  N.J. 


NEW  YORK 
G.     P.     PUTNAM'S     SONS 

27    AND    29    WEST    23D    STREET 
1882 


CoPYRrGHT  Br 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

1882 


Press  0/ 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sans 
iV*w  York 


PREFACE. 


U-, 


\ 


IT  would  not  be  presumptuous  in  me  to  infer  from 
the  diligence  and  ingenuity  that  have  been  used  ' 
in  publicly  misrepresenting  my  position  and  course 
on  the  Sunday  question,  that  the  public  have  some 
interest  in  the  matter.  The  object  of  this  book,  how- 
ever, is,  not  to  define  my  position,  but  to  discuss  the 
question,  —  a  question  in  which  the  gravest  interests 
are  imperilled  by  untenable  assumptions  and  argu- 
ments on  both  sides. 

As  to  the  misrepresentations  that  have  been  made, 
it  is  impossible  to  harbor  serious  resentment ;  for 
they  seem  to  have  been  devoid  of  malice.  Great 
consideration  is  due  toward  that  unhappy  class  of 
our  fellow-citizens  who  have  become  bound,  under 
inhuman  and  demoralizing  contracts,  to  be  funny 
once  in  every  twenty-four  hours,  honestly  if  they 
can,  but  —  to  be  funny.  Morality  cannot  always 
approve  the  expedients  to  which  they  think  them- 
selves compelled  to  resort  in  the  distressing  exigencies 
of  their  toilsome  business;  but,  even  where  morality 
condemns,  humanity  may  pity  and  forgive. 

The  best  part  of  this  book  is  made  up  of  the 
"  Six   Sermons "    of    my   noble    and   saintly   brother 

3 


4  Preface. 

George,  whose  opinions,  in  the  main,  I  accept  as 
my  own.  If  critical  readers  of  the  book  shall  be 
charmed  with  the  clear  spiritual  insight,  the  lucid 
argument,  and  the  faultless  beauty  of  expression 
which  mark  these,  like  all  he  ever  wrote,  and  shall 
find  what  I  have  written  to  be  rude  and  little  worth 
in  the  comparison,  I  shall  be  better  pleased  than  with 
any  commendation  they  could  pronounce  upon  me. 
I  hope  the  republication  of  these  "  Six  Sermons  "  will 
draw  wider  attention  to  the  forthcoming  memorial 
of  his  life  and  writings,  of  which  we  all,  father  and 
brothers,  regret  the  long  delay. 

POSTSCRIPT. 
Since  the  copy  of  this  book  was  prepared  for  the 
press,  two  events  have  occurred  to  hinder  the  publi- 
cation of  it :  first,  the  stereotype  plates  of  the  "  Six 
Sermons "  were  found  to  have  been  destroyed  ;  and 
then,  when  arrangements  to  restore  them  had  been 
completed,  the  sudden  and  serene  departure  of  my 
father  from  the  midst  of  his  great  labors  for  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth  into  the  fulness  of  that 
"  Sabbath-rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God," 
interrupted  the  course  of  this  business  with  its  sorrow 
and  its  inexpressible  joy  and  triumph. 

LEONARD   WOOLSEY  BACON. 
Norwich,  Conn.,  Feb.  22,  1882. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface      3 


A  SERMON  AND    TWO  SPEECHES. 

BY   LEONARD   WOOLSEY   BACON. 

1.  Personal  Duty  regarding  the  Observance  of 

the  Lord's  Day.  Sermon  to  the  Park  Church, 
Norwich,  Conn.,  September,  1879    ....        9 

2.  Sunday  Legislation.    Address  at  the  Massachusetts 

Sabbath  Conventions,  Boston  and  Springfield,  Oc- 
tober, 1879  •        •        •      " 34 

Note.     Letter  addressed  to  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee of  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut   ...      54 

3.  Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.     Speech  to  the 

Citizens  of  Norwich,  Monday  evening,  Aug.  II,  1879, 
just  after  the  public  defiance  of  the  Law  of  Connect- 
icut for  securing  a  weekly  Day  of  Rest  59 

5 


6  Contents. 

II. 

SIX  SERMONS  ON  THE  SABBATH  QUESTION. 

BY  GEORGE  BLAGDEN  BACON. 

PAGE 

Preface 101 

1.  The  Sabbath  of  God.    Preached  Feb.  23,  1868      .    105 

2.  The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    Preached 

March  1,  1868 124 

3.  The  Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish   Sabbath. 

Preached  March  8,  1868 147 

4.  The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.     Preached  March 

22,  1868 173 

5.  The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.    Preached  March  29, 

1868 204 

6.  The   Right  Observance  of  the   Lord's  Day. 

Preached  April  5,  1868 231 


I. 

A  SERMON  AND  TWO  SPEECHES. 

By   LEONARD   WOOLSEY   BACON. 


SUNDAY  OBSERVANCE  AND 
SUNDAY  LAWS. 


PERSONAL    DUTY    CONCERNING    SUNDAY 
OBSERVANCE. 

SERMON   TO    THE  PARK  CHURCH,   NORWICH, 
SEPTEMBER,  1879. 

"  2Let  eberg  man  fte  fullg  persuattefc  in  tyts  ofon  mivto" 
Rom.  xiv.  5. 

THE  question,  What  is  a  Christian  man's 
duty  concerning  the  observance  of  the 
Lord's  Day  ?  is  just  now  in  the  worst  position 
into  which  a  question  of  personal  duty  can 
possibly  fall.  It  is  in  a  position  of  vagueness 
and  doubt.  Men  are  not  fully  persuaded  in 
their  own  minds  about  it,  one  way  or  the  other. 
Consequently  they  are  continually  in  the  way 
of  being  tempted  to  do  that  which  they  sus- 
pect, or  half  suspect,  to  be  wrong,  or  that  which 
they  are  not  quite  sure  to  be  right.  When  so 
tempted,   most  men   yield  to   the  temptation ; 


io  Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

and,  so  yielding,  they  wound  their  own  con- 
sciences and  condemn  their  own  souls.  The 
conscience  of  the  Christian  Church  amongst 
us  is  becoming  miserably  demoralized  and 
broken  down  by  this  condition  of  things ;  and 
nothing  can  bring  it  back  to  a  healthy  tone, 
except  a  thorough  clearing  up  of  the  intellect 
on  the  subject. 

I  do  this  generation  no  injustice  in  saying 
that  the  notions  of  duty  on  this  subject  that 
are  current  in  Christian  circles  are  not  founded 
on  intelligent,  conscientious,  personal  study  of 
the  will  of  God  concerning  it.  The  opinions 
of  our  fathers,  whether  they  were  right  or 
wrong,  were  so  founded ;  and  they  held  them 
clearly  and  firmly,  and  honored  them  by  con- 
sistent practice.  They  were  fully  persuaded 
in  their  own  minds.  And  we  are  persuaded  in 
their  minds,  and  not  in  our  own.  We  have 
accepted  their  conclusions  in  a  matter-of- 
course  way,  as  a  sort  of  tradition  of  the 
elders,  taking  for  granted  that  it  must  be 
right ;  and,  when  we  are  suddenly  confronted 
with  a  different  view,  we  are  first  a  little 
shocked,  and  then  a  little  shaken  in  mind,  and 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.      1 1 

then,  some  of  us,  a  little  censorious  upon  the 
wickedness  of  people  that  do  not  come  up  to 
our  standard,  and  a  little  self-satisfied  and  vain- 
glorious over  our  superior  virtue  ;  and,  the  rest 
of  us,  a  little  disposed  to  relax  somewhat  in  our 
practice,  with  a  feeling  that  we  are  not  quite 
certain  that  it  is  wrong,  or,  if  wrong,  not  cer- 
tain that  it  is  so  very  wrong.  It  is  a  wretched 
condition  of  the  conscience  and  life,  growing 
out  of  a  poor,  low  condition  of  the  intellect, 
which  is  vague  and  hazy  and  fluctuating  on  one 
of  those  questions  of  personal  duty  on  which 
every  man  ought  to  be  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own  mind. 

One  consequence  of  this  traditionary  way  of 
dealing  with  the  question  of  duty  —  this  taking 
the  law  from  one  another,  instead  of  taking  it 
directly  from  the  word  of  God — is,  that  "the 
good  and  acceptable  and  perfect  will  of  God  " 
becomes  encumbered,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
the  Pharisees,  by  a  system  of  conventionalities, 
written  or  unwritten,  underneath  which  the  law 
of  God  is  quite  lost  out  of  sight.  And  natu- 
rally enough,  when  we  come  to  comparing  these 
conventional  standards,  the  most  rigorous  will 


1 2    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

seem  to  be  the  most  virtuous  ;  so  that  by  and 
by  the  rule  of  duty  generally  professed  will  be 
some  impossible  code  of  ascetic  requirements, 
like  that  in  the  Westminster  Catechism,1  which 
demands  that  the  whole  day  be  devoted  to 
unintermitted  acts  of  spiritual  meditation  and 
religious  worship,  and  condemns  every  word 
and  thought  that  departs  from  spiritual  topics, 
as  a  sin.  A  most  disastrous  thing,  in  the  long 
run,  is  this  refinement  and  improvement  on 
the  law  of  God.  Some  high  and  worthy  souls 
will  try  to  discipline  themselves  to  such  sus- 
tained spiritual  flights,  and  with  many  a  help- 
less fall,  and  many  an  hour  of  anxiety  and 
self-reproach,  will  strive  more  and  more  for 
the  attainment  of  that  ideal,  and  with  some 
measure  of  success.  Others,  holding  still  to 
the  same  rule  of  duty,  give  up  the  thought  of 
conforming  their  conduct  to  it,  and  subject 
their  whole  lives  to  the  shame  and  bondage 
of  a  willing,  conscious,  habitual  short-coming. 

1  "  The  Sabbath  is  to  be  sanctified  by  a  holy  resting  all  that  day, 
even  from  such  worldly  employments  and  recreations  as  are  lawful  on 
other  days,  and  spending  the  whole  time  in  the  public  and  private 
exercises  of  God's  worship,  except  so  much  as  is  to  be  taken  up  in 
the  works  of  necessity  and  mercy." 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       13 

Others,  still,  consider  that,  however  doubtful 
they  may  be  themselves  about  the  traditionary 
rules  of  Sabbath  observance,  and  however  little 
they  may  conform  to  them  in  private,  neverthe- 
less the  traditionary  ideas  on  this  subject  are 
very  salutary,  and  it  is  best  to  keep  them  up, 
as  far  as  may  be,  by  an  outward  show  or  sham 
of  conformity.  And,  finally,  there  are  others, 
and  they  are  pitifully  many,  who  find  the  regu- 
lations so  imposed  irksome,  not  to  say  impossi- 
ble, and  in  violent  and  wicked  rebellion  cast 
off  all  cords  of  restraint,  and  declare  that  they 
don't  care  for  God's  law,  and  that  they  will  do 
their  own  pleasure,  whether  God  be  for  them 
or  against  them.  Oh,  there  is  a  dreadful 
account  of  human  sin,  both  open  and  hypo- 
critical, both  in  the  days  of  the  Pharisees  and 
in  our  own  days,  to  be  imputed  to  the  setting 
up  of  a  system  of  conventionalities,  instead  of 
the  law  of  God,  in  the  matter  of  the  observance 
of  the  day  of  rest ! 

Now,  instead  of  attempting  to  maintain  and 
enforce  the  Sabbath  of  New  England  tradition, 
or  the  Sabbath  of  the  Presbyterian  Catechism, 


14   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

by  culling  "  proof-texts  "  in  support  of  them,  I 
propose  to  go  behind  all  traditions  and  pre- 
possessions, and  study  the  matter  direct  from 
the  Holy  Scriptures  themselves. 

I.  The  first  thing,  the  last  thing,  the  one 
thing,  in  all  the  Scriptures  most  conspicuous 
concerning  the  Sabbath  day,  —  so  conspicuous 
that  almost  every  thing  else  concerning  it  is 
unimportant  in  the  comparison,  —  is,  that  it  is 
to  be  a  day  of  rest.  This  is  the  meaning  of 
the  word  Sabbath-day,  —  it  means  the  rest-day. 
On  the  seventh  day  —  the  seventh  cycle  or 
creative  period  —  God  rested,  and  blessed  (con- 
secrated) the  seventh  day  of  every  week  for 
human  rest  from  human  toil.  This  is  the 
main,  primary  object  and  ordinance  of  the  day  ; 
and  in  all  the  law  and  the  prophets  there 
is  no  other  ordinance  distinctly  given  regard- 
ing it.  Every  one  —  high  and  low,  house- 
holder and  servant,  even  the  very  cattle,  every 
one  —  is  to  knock  off  work,  and  rest.  So  it 
says  in  Genesis.  So  it  says  again  in  Exodus, 
and  in  Numbers,  and  over  again  in  Deuteron- 
omy, and  yet  again  in  Nehemiah,  and  in  many 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.      35 

of  the  prophets.  This  was  the  public  law  of 
the  land,  as  well  as  the  law  of  each  man's  con- 
science before  God.  And  it  was  enforced  too. 
One  Sabbath  morning-,  while  the  people  were 
still  under  martial  law  in  the  desert  encamp- 
ment, a  man  openly  undertook  to  defy  the  law, 
and  to  make  issue  with  the  government  on  this 
point  of  obedience  to  the  law  of  the  weekly 
rest*  His  challenge  to  the  government  was 
accepted  on  the  spot,  and  he  was  executed  as 
if  for  treason  to  the  law.  And  this  was  right. 
If  punishment  is  ever  right  for  any  thing,  it 
is  right  in  its  uttermost  severity  in  the  case 
of  one  who  openly  defies  the  law  and  the  gov- 
ernment, even  if  it  is  on  a  matter  of  gathering 
sticks,  or  a  matter  of  firing  balls  at  a  bit  of 
bunting.  And  the  government  that  cannot, 
or  dare  not,  or  will  not,  deal  with  the  open 
defiance  of  its  authority,  is  a  decaying  and 
dying  government  ;  and  such  a  government 
was  not  that  of  the  Hebrew  wanderers  in  the 
wilderness.  When  the  law  said,  there  shall  be 
no  work,  but  general  rest,  throughout  the  camp, 
the  law  meant  what  it  said. 

It  meant  what  it  said.     That  is  really  (if  I 


1 6    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

may  tell  you  one  of  the  secrets  of  theological 
science),  that  is  really  the  key  to  the  myste- 
ries of  biblical  interpretation,  —  that  the  Bible 
means  what  it  says.  Now,  in  regard  to  this 
fourth  commandment,  there  is  a  strong  im- 
pression that  in  some  mysterious  way  it  means 
something  that  it  does  not  say.  What  it  says 
is  so  simple,  —  that  on  the  seventh  day  they 
shall  knock  off  work,  and  rest,  —  surely  it  can- 
not mean  so  simple  a  thing  as  that !  There  is, 
I  suspect,  an  impression  on  some  minds,  that, 
if  they  could  get  at  the  original  Hebrew,  they 
could  extort  more  of  a  meaning  out  of  it  than 
that, — that  men  were  just  to  knock  off  work, 
and  rest.  But  I  think  the  Hebrew  is  as  plain 
as  the  English. 

But  is  not  more  than  this  meant  when  it  is 
commanded  to  "sanctify"  the  Sabbath  day,  or 
"keep  it  holy"?  I  think  not,  and  I  will  tell 
you  why.  First,  as  I  judge,  the  meaning  of 
the  opening  words  of  the  commandment  are 
to  be  interpreted  by  the  words  that  follow; 
and,  thus  interpreted,  they  mean  that  the  day 
is  to  be  kept  sacred  from  the  intrusion  of 
labor.     Secondly,  the  meaning  of  these  words 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       17 

is  to  be  judged  from  the  whole  course  of  divine 
instruction  and  requirement  concerning  the 
Sabbath  day ;  and  that  is  directed  simply  and 
exclusively  to  this  one  point  of  abstinence 
from  labor.  Thirdly,  it  is  to  be  judged  by 
common  sense ;  and  this  excludes  the  idea,  that 
to  keep  the  Sabbath  holy  was  to  "spend  all 
the  time  in  worship  : "  for  no  ordinary  mind, 
not  one  in  a  hundred,  —  not  one  in  a  hundred 
thousand,  —  is  capable  of  sustained  acts  of  wor- 
ship twenty-four  hours,  or  twelve  hours,  or  six 
hours,  in  continuance;  and  this  commandment 
was  not  given  to  extraordinary  minds,  such  as 
go  to  make  up  a  Westminster  Assembly  of 
theologians,  but  to  mankind  at  large,  and  pri- 
marily to  a  very  unspiritual  part  of  mankind, 
—  to  a  clan  of  freedmen  just  come  forth  from 
the  house  of  bondage. 

"  But  is  that  all  that  the  commandment  re- 
quires ? "  The  question  is  put  sometimes  in 
that  spirit  of  Naaman  the  Syrian,  which  can- 
not believe  that  God  would  command  a  simple, 
easy,  happy  thing, — a  spirit  which  has  miscon- 
strued God's  word  on  more  vital  matters  than 
this    matter  of   the    rest-day.     "  Is    that    all  ? " 


1 8    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

Well,  is  not  that  enough  to  begin  on  ?  Had 
you  not  better  wait  till  you  have  learned  to 
fulfil  this  plain  and  easy  injunction,  before  you 
go  on  to  look  for  some  more  recondite  and 
weighty  meaning?  Do  you  fulfil  it?  There 
is  no  scandal  about  your  deportment.  You 
would  be  offended  and  pained  to  see  your 
neighbor,  whose  daily  work  is  done  with  a 
spade  or  a  grocer's  wagon,  going  about  it  of  a 
Sunday  morning.  But  your  work  is  done  with 
your  head  :  and  when  you  carry  your  six  days' 
work  over  into  the  seventh,  and  instead  of 
taking  the  happy  repose  which  is  your  privi- 
lege and  duty,  and  your  privilege  because  it  is 
your  duty,  you  are  busy,  in  your  place  in 
church,  or  as  you  sit  with  the  religious  news- 
paper on  your  lap,  maturing  business  combina- 
tions, getting  a  complicated  bargain  into  the 
right  shape,  calculating  a  new  turn  in  politics, 
or  threading  the  intricacies  of  a  lawsuit,  and 
all  this  without  any  visible  sign  of  it  on  your 
countenance,  — why,  there  is  no  one  to  be  dis- 
turbed or  scandalized  by  it ;  but  it  is  in  distinct, 
diametric  disagreement  with  this  commandment, 
both  in  its  letter  and  in  its  spirit,  —  far  more 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       19 

clearly  so  than  if  you  were  to  take  your  hoe 
into  your  flower-garden,  or  drag  your  lawn- 
mower  across  the  turf ;  for  these  are  not  your 
work,  but  your  recreation.  Every  thing  is  done 
with  perfect  decorum  and  stillness,  when  you 
take  your  hard  six  days'  head-work  over  into 
the  seventh  ;  but  it  does  not  the  less  suffer  the 
retributions  which,  in  the  course  of  nature, 
overtake  the  violations  of  a  commandment  that 
is  contained  not  less  in  the  principles  of  physi- 
ology than  in  the  beneficent  written  law. 

But  is  not  the  Sabbath  ordained  for  worship  ? 
No,  not  primarily ;  but  for  repose  and  refresh- 
ment. Only  once  in  the  multitude  of  com- 
mands concerning  the  Sabbath  day,  is  mention 
made  of  "a  holy  convocation:"1  the  Hebrew 
ritual  also  made  some  distinction  between  the 
seventh-day  ceremonies  and  those  of  other 
days.2  But  the  law  and  meaning  of  the  clay 
are  given  in  the  fourth  commandment  in  its 
two  varying  forms, 3  and  they  are  perfectly 
clear.  Nevertheless,  worship  and  the  study  of 
God's  will  did  grow  to  be  a  beautiful  and  con- 

1  Lev.  xxiii.  2,  3.  2  Num.  xxviii.  9;  Lev.  xxiv.  8, 

3  Exod.  xx.  8-1 1  ;   Deut.  v.  12-15. 


20   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

stant  incident  of  the  day  of  rest.  As  the 
scenes  of  public  history  move  swiftly  by  us  in 
the  early  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  get 
here  and  there  a  glimpse  of  domestic  life,  and 
among  these  the  picture  of  a  godly  family  sad- 
dling its  beasts  to  go  to  the  prophet's  house.1 
Once  or  twice  in  the  Psalms  2  we  seem  to  hear 
a  burst  of  Sabbath  worship  ;  and  at  last,  after 
the  return  from  exile,  we  find  the  synagogue, 
the  type  of  the  Christian  church,  wherein 
"Moses  is  preached  every  Sabbath  day,"  3 
grown  into  universal  acceptance.  And  all  this, 
not  by  ordinance,  but  all  the  more  to  the  honor 
of  God  and  his  church  because  it  is  without 
ordinance  —  the  native  growth  of  a  willing  wor- 
ship upon  a  divinely  given  rest-day. 

2.  Such  was  the  use  of  the  Sabbatic  law 
under  the  Old  Testament.  What  were  the 
abuses  and  perversions  of  it,  the  pages  of  the 
Four  Gospels  repeatedly  show.  That  spirit  to 
which  I  have  already  alluded  as  infecting,  not 
Jewish    only,  but    Christian    interpretations    of 

1  2  Kings  iv.  22.         2  Psa.  lxxxi.  3 ;  xcii.  title. 
3  Acts  xv.  2i.     Cf.  Acts  xiii.  14,  15,  27;   Luke  iv.  15,  16. 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       2 1 

Scripture,  could  not  be  content  with  the  plain 
and  simple  thing  which  the  Scripture  said,  but 
must  needs  superinduce  upon  it  new  meanings 
by  construction  and  inference ;  thus  devising 
new  prohibitions,  and  thereby  inventing  new 
temptations  and  new  sins, — a  most  perilous 
and  pernicious  business.  " Carrying  a  bed!" 
said  they,  when  they  saw  one  that  had  been 
sick  of  the  palsy.  "  Nay,  verily ;  that  is  trans- 
portation. If  a  bed,  why  not  all  your  house- 
hold furniture  ?  Where  can  you  draw  the  line  ? 
Rubbing  out  corn  in  the  hands  1  what  is  that 
but  a  form  of  threshing  ?  and  killing  a  flea  is 
tantamount  to  hunting.  And  if  one  were  to 
climb  a  tree,  and  thereby  break  a  twig  of  it,  he 
might  as  well  have  chopped  wood  all  day."  Of 
course,  under  this  sort  of  interpretation,  the 
suffering  or  imposing  of  the  worst  annoyances 
was  a  mark  of  the  highest  virtue.  The  ascetic 
treatment  of  the  day  transformed  it  from  a 
privilege  into  a  slavish  burden.  There  was  no 
point  on  which  Pharisaism  so  bitterly  attacked 
the  conduct  of  Jesus ;  none  on  which  his  pro- 
test against  the  Pharisees,  as  making  void  the 
law  which  they  pretended  to  guard,  was  more 


22    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

pointed.  His  contention  against  them  was, 
not  that  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  was  an  intolerable 
burden,  but  that  the  intolerable  burden  which 
they  bound  on  men's  shoulders  was  not  the 
Mosaic  Sabbath,  but  a  travesty  of  it.  These 
artificial  austerities,  not  only  were  they  not 
required,  they  were  forbidden  by  the  whole 
genius  of  the  day. 

Thus  the  clear  meaning  of  the  ancient  law 
is  confirmed  by  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  his  rebuke  of  current  misinterpretations. 
The  object  of  the  Sabbath  law  was  plain 
enough.  Other  blessings  were  incidental  to 
it.  A  whole  system  of  useful  religious  observ- 
ances had  grown  up  around  it.  But  the  pri- 
mary object  of  the  institution  was  rest,  —  that 
each  one  should  rest  himself,  and  allow  all 
others  to  rest.  This  was  the  law.  Christ  did 
not  attempt  to  modify  it.  He  restored  it 
wherein  it  had  been  made  void  by  misinter- 
pretation. The  Sabbath,  he  said,  was  not  an 
end,  but  a  means  to  an  end.  The  Sabbath  law 
was  a  law  of  universal  rest  ;  but  it  was  enacted 
for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  and  is  therefore  to 
be  held  subordinate  to  human  wants  and  neces- 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       23 

sities.  In  short,  he  laid  down  the  principle 
that  is  incorporated  into  oar  own  legislation 
on  the  day  of  rest,  —  that  suspension  of  labor 
is  not  to  be  exacted  in  case  of  works  of  neces- 
sity or  mercy.  But  he  did  not  change  the  char- 
acter of  the  Hebrew  festival,  or  add  any  new 
commandment  to  that  which  made  it  a  day  of 
personal  and  public  repose.  The  ordinance 
that  "all  the  time  be  spent  in  acts  of  public 
or  private  worship "  is  not  found  in  the  Old 
Testament  or  in  the  New,  but  in  the  acts  of 
the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines.  It 
does  not  appear  that  he  whom,  alone  of  men, 
we  call  our  Lord,  spent  his  Sabbaths  in  that 
way.  In  fact,  the  contrary  appears  at  that 
dinner-party  of  a  chief  Pharisee,  at  which  he 
was  a  conspicuous  guest. 

But  now  let  us  come  closer  to  the  personal, 
practical  question  which  concerns  and  some- 
times perplexes  you  and  me.  The  question  is, 
not  what  was  the  duty  of  a  faithful  Hebrew 
respecting  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  but 
what  is  the  duty  of  an  American  Christian 
concerning   the   first   day.      And   that,    let   us 


24   Sunday  Obsei'vance  a?id  Sunday  Laws. 

plainly  acknowledge,  is  not  to  be  denned  by 
the  letter  of  the  law  of  Moses.  We  are  not 
under  the  law,  but  under  grace.  We  do  not 
pretend  to  follow  the  letter  of  the  fourth 
commandment.  We  have  even  conspicuously 
and  quite  unnecessarily  departed  from  the  let- 
ter of  it  at  a  point  on  which  the  commandment 
insists  with  great  emphasis,  alleging  it  as  con- 
taining the  very  reason  of  the  commandment. 
The  commandment  says,  Keep  the  seventh  day 
sacred  to  repose,  because  on  the  seventh  day 
the  Lord  your  God  rested  from  the  labors  of 
the  creation.  We  say,  No :  we  will  keep  the 
first  day  of  the  week  for  other  reasons.  And 
when  the  Seventh  Day  Baptists  reproach  us 
with  this  unfaithfulness  to  the  law  which  we 
profess  so  punctiliously  to  observe,  we  have 
really  very  little  to  say  for  ourselves  ;  and  so 
we  generally  turn  them  off  with  some  poor 
little  joke :  for  the  most  of  an  argument  that 
I  remember  to  have  heard  against  the  Seventh 
Day  Baptists,  was  the  one  which  used  to  be 
rehearsed  once  a  year  by  the  Professor  of 
Astronomy  at  Yale  College,  when,  at  a  certain 
point  in  his  lectures,  he  advised   them  all    to 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       25 

sail  around  the  world  to  the  eastward,  and  so 
gain  a  day  in  their  reckoning,  and  they  would 
come  back  all  right,  and  quite  like  other  peo- 
ple. The  day  doesn't  matter  (we  say  with  a 
fine  and  lofty  contempt),  so  long  as  it  is  one 
day  in  seven.  The  day  does  matter,  says  the 
fourth  commandment  ;  and  it  shall  be  the 
seventh  day,  for  such  and  such  a  reason. 
The  day  does  matter,  said  the  early  Chris- 
tians ;  and  we  decide,  not  to  keep  the  seventh 
day,  but  the  first,  for  such  and  such  another 
reason.  The  very  ground  of  the  change  was, 
that  it  did  make  a  difference  which  day  was 
observed,  and  that  the  difference  was  worth 
making.  And  it  has  this  noble  instruction,  for 
us,  if  only  we  have  ears  and  hearts  to  receive 
it,  that  the  laws  of  commandments  contained 
in  ordinances  —  the  formulas,  "touch  not,  taste 
not,  handle  not,  which  perish  in  the  using"  — 
are  not  a  sufficient  measure  and  gauge  of  the 
Christian's  duty.  Every  Lord's  Day  that  we 
gather  for  worship  in  the  midst  of  the  general 
calm  and  silence  of  a  public  rest  is  a  decla- 
ration at  the  same  time  of  our  loyalty  to  the 
spirit  of  the  law,  and  of  our  freedom  from  its 


26    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

letter.  It  is  a  sign  that  we  have  taken,  not  a 
lower  and  laxer  standard  of  duty,  but  a  higher, 
—  the  law  interpreted  by  the  spirit  of  grateful 
love. 

Applying,  now,  this  standard  to  the  practical 
and  personal  questions  of  duty  touching  the 
Lord's  Day,  we  find  that :  — 

1.  Some  of  these  questions  may  be  elimi- 
nated at  once,  as  being  settled  by  other  consid- 
erations. 

i.  Many  questions  on  which  we  ask  for  light 
from  the  fourth  commandment  are  fully  de- 
cided for  us  under  the  fifth,  by  the  law  of  the 
household  of  which  we  are  members,  by  the 
known  wish  of  the  father  and  mother  whom  we 
honor  and  obey. 

2.  Other  questions  may  be  settled  for  us  in 
like  manner  by  the  civil  law  to  which  we  owe 
allegiance,  and  which  limits  us  in  our  liberty  of 
deciding  and  acting  at  certain  points. 

3.  Duty  to  the  church  —  the  community  of 
the  fellow-Christians  among  whom  we  live  — 
may  often  be  a  consideration  that  shall  justly 
decide  questions  of  duty  concerning  the  day  of 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       27 

rest,  quite  independently  of  their  intrinsic  mer- 
its. The  fact  that  this  line  of  argument  is 
so  often  exaggerated  and  overstrained  in  our 
time  must  not  lead  us  to  forget  that  it  is  a 
legitimate  and  authoritative  line  of  argument. 

II.  But  setting  aside  all  such  questions, 
thankful  to  be  relieved  of  them,  there  will  still 
keep  coming  back  to  us  questions  of  Lord's  Day 
observance  to  be  decided  squarely  and  directly. 
What  can  I  say  that  shall  be  helpful  to  you  to 
reach  a  right  conclusion  on  them  ? 

I  cannot  but  think  that  my  personal  experi- 
ence has  prepared  me  in  some  degree  to  advise 
upon  this  subject ;  for  the  question  has  been 
forced  upon  my  decision  in  circumstances  in 
which  no  one  of  these  outside  considerations 
could  come  in  to  make  weight, — in  countries 
where  there  was  neither  public  sentiment,  nor 
Christian  feeling,  nor  civil  law,  nor  filial  duty, 
to  help  decide.  I  have  always  been  glad,  for 
myself  and  my  family,  that  I  was  led  to  keep 
the  same  quiet,  religious,  and  family  Sunday  in 
Germany  and  Switzerland  that  I  had  learned 
to  keep  here  in  New  England.     And  however 


28    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

difficult,  at  times,  it  was,  I  believe  still  that  it 
was  the  right  thing,  the  incomparably  best 
thing,  for  me  and  my  children.  I  do  not  ask 
you  to  accept  my  rule.  I  invite  no  man  to 
judge  me  concerning  holy  days,  and  I  myself 
judge  no  man.  Be  persuaded  each  in  your  own 
mind.  But  ponder  well  the  principle  which  I 
commend  to  you,  the  axiom  which  cannot  be 
wrong,  that  in  this,  as  in  all  things  else,  you  are 
bound  before  God  to  do  the  very  best  thing,  and 
nothing  but  the  best. 

I  seem  to  hear  the  answer  coming  back  with 
a  sigh  from  burdened  hearts,  "  It  is  only  a  new 
way  of  saying  the  old  thing.  To  do  the  very 
best,  and  nothing  but  the  best,  what  can  this 
mean  but  to  impose  upon  us  the  strain  of 
twelve  or  fifteen  hours  of  incessant  religious 
exercises,  —  the  yoke  which  neither  we  nor  our 
fathers  were  able  to  bear  ? " 

To  which  I  have  only  to  say,  that,  if  it  is  true 
that  this  is  the  best,  then  you  are  bound  to  it. 
And  if  your  relaxation  of  this  rule  means  that 
you  give  up  trying  to  do  your  best  in  God's 
service,  and  mean  to  do  only  your  second-best, 
then    are   you    condemned    in    that  which  you 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       29 

allow.  But  it  is  not  true.  The  history  of  your 
individual  conscience,  as  well  as  the  history  of 
society,  proves  that  this  exaggeration  of  the 
law  of  God  is  neither  for  his  glory  nor  for  the 
good  of  his  human  creatures.  We  must  go 
behind  this  "tradition  of  the  elders"  for  the 
true  rule  of  a  Christian  man's  duty  on  the 
Lord's  Day. 

1.  We  find  it  in  the  words  of  the  ancient 
law,  —  the  law  of  rest,  —  rest  of  body  and  mind. 
How  strangely  good  people  sometimes  miss  it ! 
Often,  passing  Sunday  away  from  home,  I  have 
heard  my  hosts  confess,  with  half  a  blush,  that 
they  were  guilty  of  having  a  late  breakfast 
Sunday  morning.  And  oftener  still  I  have 
heard  some  of  those  bustling,  stir-about  Chris- 
tians, whom  we  have  all  met  with,  claiming, 
with  much  complacency,  that  his  Sunday  was 
the  hardest  clay  of  all  the  week  to  him,  —  that 
what  with  church-going,  and  Sunday  schools, 
and  prayer-meetings,  and  street-preaching,  and 
all,  he  got  up  earlier,  worked  harder,  and  went 
to  bed  wearier,  than  any  other  day,  —  all  which 
may  be  right,  but  it  is  not  resting. 

2.  Do  I  need  to  say  that  it  ought  to  be  the 


30   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

glory  of  the  Lord's  Day  in  a  Christian  family 
that  it  is  the  home-day  ?  This  is  one  of  the 
pleasant  things  in  the  remembrance  of  our 
Sundays  abroad,  —  the  great  processions  of  the 
baby-wagons  on  every  public  promenade  and 
pleasant  country-road.  There  were  sights  and 
sounds  of  demoralizing  carousal  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  enforced  drudgery  on  the  other 
hand ;  but  the  pleasant  family  groups  about 
the  baby-wagons  were  among  the  good  things 
left  to  them  of  a  day  of  rest. 

It  does  seem  as  if  sometimes  amongst  us  a 
false  notion  of  the  sanctity  of  the  clay  was 
suffered  to  hinder  our  sanctifying  it  by  holy 
uses  of  family  duty  and  affection.  If  ever  old 
age,  or  sickness,  or  pining  loneliness,  are  suf- 
fered to  lack  the  enlivening  of  your  visit, 
because  you  hold  the  day  too  holy  for  Sunday 
calls,  the  wrong  is  almost  identical  with  that 
of  those  whom  our  Lord  rebuked,  who  would 
say  to  their  parents,  "  Corban  —  it  is  conse- 
crated to  holy  uses  —  that  which  should  have 
gone  to  your  comfort  and  support."  l 

3.   Let    a    systematic    part    of   your  Sabbath 

1  Mark  vii.  11  ;  Matt,  xv,  5. 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.       31 

service  be  the  doing  of  works  of  mercy.  "  Pure 
religious  worship,  and  undefiled  before  God 
and  the  Father  is  this  :  To  visit  the  fatherless 
and  widow  in  their  affliction,  and  to  keep  your- 
selves unspotted  from  the  world."  Pre-emi- 
nently is  the  Lord's  Day  the  day  for  the 
deacons  and  deaconesses  of  the  church  to  be 
busy  on  their  official  errands  to  the  poor. 

4.  Finally,  among  the  duties  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath  are  public  worship  and  instruction.  I 
name  them  last,  because,  to  those  who  spend 
the  day  in  the  spirit  of  these  suggestions, 
there  will  be  no  need  of  enjoining  them  at  all 
as  a  duty.  They  will  come  of  themselves. 
They  were  not  named  in  the  original  law  of 
the  Sabbath,  but  see  how  naturally  and  uni- 
versally they  came  to  be  used  ;  so  that  in  Paul's 
day,  as  in  ours,  wherever  there  were  Jews, 
there  was  a  synagogue,  and  in  it  preaching 
and  worship  every  Sabbath  day.1  If  you  keep 
this  day  to  the  Lord  as  a  day  of  rest,  of  home 
comfort,  of  good  works  to  the  poor  and  the 
sick,  I  have  no  concern  'at  all  but  that  you 
will  use  it,  in  due    proportion,  for  direct  acts 

1  Acts  xv.  21. 


32    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

of  worship.  And  the  worship  that  you  render 
will  not  be  the  less  acceptable  to  the  heart  of 
God,  the  incense  of  your  pure  offering  will  not 
be  of  a  less  sweet  savor,  being  the  willing- 
sacrifice  of  a  thankful  heart,  than  if,  under  the 
imagined  stress  of  law,  you  were  putting  the 
mind  on  a  continual  and  conscious  strain  to 
spend  "  all  the  time  either  in  public  or  private 
worship." 

The  common  mistake,  in  this  whole  business, 
is  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  the  Lord's 
Day  is  so  much  time  that  the  Lord  has  taken 
away  from  you  that  he  might  reserve  it  for 
himself.  Nay,  on  the  contrary,  he  has  claimed 
it  for  himself  that  he  might  give  it  back  to 
you.  Once  a  week  he  comes  between  you  and 
your  employers,  between  you  and  your  exact- 
ing business,  your  perplexities,  your  anxieties. 
It  is  to  these  that  he  turns  in  your  behalf,  and 
says,  "  Stand  off  a  while.  Let  that  man  alone. 
Let  him  rest.     This  is  my  day." 

And  then  he  turns  to  you,  and  says,  "  This 
is  my  day,  —  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God. 
I  have  redeemed  it,  and  guarded  it,  that  I 
might  give  it  back  to  thee.      It  was  made  for 


Concerning  Sunday  Observance.      33 

man.  The  Son  of  man  is  Lord  of  the  Sabbath 
day.  The  Lord's  Day  is  thine  own  day  — 
thine." 

And  now,  what  will  you  do  with  it,  —  this 
free  day,  God's  free  gift  to  you  ?  Will  you 
toss  it  back  into  the  midst  of  this  world's 
cares  and  toils,  to  be  ravened  up  by  them  ? 
Will  you  consume  it  greedily  in  selfish  pleas- 
ures, reckless  of  others'  burdens  of  toil,  that 
you  may  riot  ?  Will  you  make  of  it  "  a  day  to 
afflict  the  soul,  and  bow  down  the  head  like  a 
bulrush  ? "  It  were  like  flinging  back  the  gift 
into  the  giver's  face.  Or  will  you  rather  rest 
in  the  Lord  with  a  thankful  and  peaceful  heart, 
so  resting  that  others  may  have  rest  as  well  as 
you  ?  Will  you  make  the  Sabbath  a  delight  in 
your  home  ?  Will  you  be  abundant  in  Christ- 
like acts  of  mercy,  and  " joyful  in  the  house 
of  prayer  ? " 


34    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 


SUNDAY    LEGISLATION: 

A  LAW  OF  REST  FOR  ALL  NECESSARY  TO 
THE  LIBERTY  OF  REST  FOR  EACH. 

ADDRESS    AT    THE    MASSACHUSETTS     SABBATH    CON- 
VENTIONS,   BOSTON    AND    SPRINGFIELD,    OCTOBER, 

187Q. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CIT- 
IZENS,—  I  purpose  scrupulously  to 
refrain  from  overstepping  the  narrow  limits  of 
the  thesis  on  which  I  have  been  asked  to  speak, 
in  any  such  way  as  to  encroach  on  ground 
occupied  by  others.  But  there  is  one  point 
essential  to  a  right  understanding  of  this  and 
of  many  other  parts  of  the  subject  before  us, 
which,  through  the  regretted  absence  of  Judge 
Strong,  has  failed  to  be  formally  set  before  the 
convention,1  and  which,  therefore,  I  may  be 
permitted    to    illustrate    by   an    incident    that 

1  Judge  Strong  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  had 
been  expected  to  read  a  paper  on  "  The  Civil  and  the  Religious 
Sabbath." 


Sunday  Legislation.  35 

occurred    in    the  first    International    Sabbath 
Congress,  held  three  years  ago  at  Geneva. 

After  many  hours  of  conference  and  discus- 
sion, the  Congress  had  been  brought  to  the 
point  of  adopting  the  platform  of  a  permanent 
international  Sabbath  league ;  and  of  this  plat- 
form a  conspicuous  article  was  the  one  embody- 
ing a  ''scriptural  basis"  (as  it  was  called)  con- 
sisting of  the  fourth  commandment  and  the 
declaration  of  our  Saviour,  "  The  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man."  The  question  being  on  the 
adoption  of  this  article,  a  fair-haired,  near- 
sighted, and  broad-shouldered  gentleman,  who 
had  been  thus  far  an  earnest  and  useful  mem- 
ber of  the  convention,  arose,  and  very  mod- 
estly and  courteously  asked  (in  the  German 
language)  that  no  basis  of  organization  should 
be  insisted  on  which  would  exclude  him  and 
those  whom  he  represented  from  co-operation 
in  a  work  so  beneficent  as  the  maintenance  of 
a  weekly  day  of  rest.  He  himself  was  a  ration- 
alist pastor  from  Bremen  :  he  was  the  repre- 
sentative of  an  "  Arbeiterverein,"  or  some  sort 
of  workingmen's  organization  of  a  socialist 
complexion  ;    and   neither  he    nor  the    Bremen 


36    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

workingmen  had  any  kind  of  faith  in  the 
"scriptural  basis,"  in  Old  Testament  or  New, 
which  was  proposed  as  a  condition  of  co-opera- 
tion. Only  they  felt  that  a  weekly  day  of  rest, 
guarded  and  guaranteed  by  law,  would  be  an 
immense  blessing  to  the  workingman  and  to 
the  whole  public ;  and  they  asked  the  privilege 
of  doing  what  they  could,  in  their  own  way, 
and  acting  from  their  own  point  of  view,  in 
co-operation  with  those  who  differed  from  them 
in  opinion,  to  promote  the  end  which  they  all 
sought  in  common. 

With  many  expressions  of  personal  respect, 
the  Congress  nevertheless  voted  by  an  over- 
whelming majority  to  allow  their  unorthodox 
brother  no  part  nor  lot  with  them  in  their 
efforts  to  promote  a  social  and  legislative  re- 
form. But  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  assuring 
you  that  this  action  was  not  taken  without  an 
energetic  remonstrance  from  the  representative 
of  the  United  States,  who  objected  to  hearing 
America  cited  as  an  example  of  enforcing  reli- 
gious duties  by  secular  laws,  and  declared  that 
our  American  Sunday  legislation,  which  they 
so  admired,  was  founded,  not  on  the  principle 


Sunday  Legislation.  37 

of  enforcing  a  religious  duty  by  civil  law,  but 
on  the  democratic  principles  of  liberty,  equal- 
ity, and  fraternity,  —  principles  which  we  be- 
lieve that  we  understand  quite  as  well  in  Amer- 
ica as  they  do  in  Geneva  or  Paris.  A  religious 
basis,  he  declared,  was  considered  in  America 
to  be  essential  to  co-operation  in  religious 
movements  ;  but  that  we  did  not  always  find  it 
necessary  to  quote  scripture  in  a  political  man- 
ifesto, though  this  was  sometimes  done.  It 
was  important,  he  said,  that  those  who  under- 
took to  deal  with  the  Sabbath  question  should 
remember  that  the  Sabbath  question  is  not  one 
question,  but  two  questions  ;  that  the  religious 
Sabbath,  consecrated  to  worship  and  to  divine 
commemoration,  and  the  civil  holiday,  main- 
tained by  force  of  law,  have  this  in  common, 
that  in  many  countries  they  coincide  upon  the 
same  day ;  but  they  are  not  the  same  :  the  for- 
mer cannot  be  enforced  by  secular  legislation  ; 
and  the  latter  cannot  in  this  age  be  sustained 
merely  by  Bible-texts. 

It  was  not  much  of  a  speech,  but  it  made 
something  of  an  impression ;  and  the  speaker 
was    entirely  contented  with    the  result   of   it, 


38    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

when,  in  the  great  closing  assembly,  the  most 
eloquent  coufe'rencier  in  the  French  language, 
Ernest  Naville,  took  this  distinction  for  his 
text,  and,  in  a  discourse  of  more  than  an  hour's 
duration,  commended  the  religious  Sabbath  to 
the  observance  of  every  good  Christian,  and 
the  civil  Sabbath  to  the  support  of  every  right- 
minded  citizen,  Christian  or  not.  I  wish  this 
exquisitely  lucid  address  might  be  added,  in 
English,  to  our  scanty  stock  of  good  popular 
literature  relating  to  the  subject.  It  might 
help  to  supersede  some  of  the  superstitious  and 
fanatical  literature  now  or  lately  current,  from 
the  effects  of  which  the  Sabbath  cause  is  suf- 
fering. 

Let  me  ask  you,  in  order  to  avoid  the  misun- 
derstanding which  will  otherwise  be  inevitable, 
to  keep  this  distinction  in  mind,  and  remember 
that,  throughout  this  paper,  I  am  speaking 
primarily,  not  of  the  religious,  but  of  the  civil 
institution. 

I  shall  presume,  then,  on  your  good  sense 
and  clear  apprehension  in  this  matter,  taking 
for  granted  that  you  are  wiser  than  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  International  Congress,  and  that,  on 


Sunday  Legislation.  39 

the  enforcement  of  the  external  quiet  and 
repose  of  the  civil  Sunday  (which  I  understand 
to  be  the  aspect  of  the  question  on  which  I  am 
invited  to  speak),  you  are  willing  to  entertain  a 
line  of  argument  broad  and  liberal  enough  to 
demand  the  adhesion  and  support  of  every 
reasonable  man,  whatever  his  views  concerning 
the  religious  sanctions  of  the  day. 

The  question  is  one  of  —  what  shall  I  say  ? 
workingmen's  rights,  I  was  about  to  say,  ex- 
cept that  this  expression  has  become  so  smutted 
in  the  dirty  hands  of  demagogues,  that  one 
loathes  to  take  it  up  after  them,  —  the  question 
is  one  of  personal  liberty ;  how  to  secure  for 
every  citizen  the  liberty  to  rest  one  day  in 
seven. 

There  is  a  very  free  and  easy  answer  to  this 
question  on  the  tongue's  end  of  some  wise 
people,  who  deliver  it  as  an  axiom  that  the 
short  and  ready  way  to  universal  liberty  of 
resting  is  simply  to  keep  hands  off,  not  to 
meddle  with  the  matter  by  legislation,  and  let 
everybody  do  as  he  pleases  about  it.  What 
can  be  simpler  ? 

The    temptation    is    irresistible,    to    answer 


4-0    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

these  people  according  to  their  folly,  and  con- 
demn them  out  of  their  own  mouths.  For  it 
happens,  curiously  enough,  that  many  of  the 
very  people  who  are  clamoring  against  our 
six-day  law,  as  an  unwarrantable  interference 
with  individual  liberty,  are  just  as  clamorous 
in  favor  of  an  eight-hour  law  of  their  own 
invention.  "  What  do  you  want,"  let  me  ask, 
"  of  an  eight-hour  law  ?  Why  not  leave  the 
matter  to  every  man  to  decide  for  himself, 
whether  he  shall  work  eight  hours,  or  ten,  or 
fifteen  ?  Don't  let  us  have  any  meddlesome 
legislation.  '  The  best  government  is  that 
which  governs  least.'  Surely,  if  your  reason- 
ing is  good  concerning  clays  in  the  week,  it  is 
equally  good  concerning  hours  in  the  day  !  " 

This  argument  has  been  curiously  and  admir- 
ably anticipated  in  the  speech  of  Macaulay  in 
defence  of  the  principle  of  a  ten-hour  law,  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  in  1846.  The  right 
and  expediency  of  guarding  the  liberty  to  rest, 
by  legally  limiting  the  time  of  labor,  was  vin- 
dicated against  this  very  objection  by  the 
analogy  of  the  Sunday  laws.  Objectors  said, 
"  If   this    ten-hour  limitation    be    good   for  the 


Sunday  Legislation.  41 

working-people,  rely  on  it  that  they  will  them- 
selves establish  it  without  any  law."  —  "Why 
not  reason,"  answered  Macaulay,  —  "why  not 
reason  in  the  same  way  about  the  Sunday  ? 
Why  not  say,  '  If  it  be  a  good  thing  for  the 
people  of  London  to  shut  their  shops  one  day 
in  seven,  they  will  find  it  out,  and  will  shut 
their  shops  without  a  law  ? '  Sir,  the  answer 
is  obvious.  I  have  no  doubt,  that,  if  you  were 
to  poll  the  shop-keepers  of  London,  you  would 
find  an  immense  majority,  probably  a  hundred 
to  one,  in  favor  of  closing  shops  on  the  Sun- 
day :  and  yet  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  give 
to  the  wish  of  the  majority  the  sanction  of  a 
law ;  for,  if  there  were  no  such  law,  the  minor- 
ity, by  opening  their  shops,  would  soon  force 
the  majority  to  do  the  same."  J 

How  curiously  the  wheel  of  this  discussion 
has  come  around,  so  that  now  there  is  a  party 
of  people  soberly  alleging  what  that  famous 
orator  enunciated  as  an  absurdity,  and  claim- 
ing as  an  axiom  what  he  proved  from  the 
premises  which  they  are  trying  to  knock 
away  ! 

1  Speeches  of  Macaulay,  ed.  Tauchnitz,  ii.  208,  209.  The  whole 
speech  is  worth  reading  for  its  close  relation  to  our  subject. 


42    Sunday  Observance  and  Su?iday  Laws. 

This  whole  subject  gets  its  liveliest  illus- 
tration when,  from  time  to  time,  some  one  of 
those  vocations  which  the  general  convenience 
allows  to  be  excepted  from  the  general  law  of 
Sunday  rest  seeks  to  be  included  within  the 
law.  Repeatedly,  for  instance,  there  have  been 
memorials  from  all  the  barbers  of  a  town,  ask- 
ing to  have  their  own  shops  shut  by  law.  Very 
absurd,  isn't  it  ?  If  they  want  their  shops 
shut,  why  don't  they  shut  them  ?  This  was 
the  view  taken  by  one  enterprising  young  col- 
ored man  in  a  Connecticut  town,  not  long  ago. 
There  was  a  movement,  among  his  competitors 
in  the  profession,  to  have  all  the  barbers'  shops 
shut  on  Sunday.  "All  right!"  he  said,  "you 
go  right  on,  and  shut  your  shops.  Never  mind 
me."  And  so  all  the  shops  had  to  be  kept 
open. 

Another  illustration  of  a  like  character  comes 
to  me  from  a  similar  quarter.  A  coal-dealer, 
near  a  certain  steamboat-landing,  finds  that  in 
the  competitions  of  business  his  Sunday  rest 
has  been  completely  taken  away  from  him. 
All  the  little  tugs  and  propellers  find  that  they 
can  get   their  coal   put  in   on  Sunday,  and  so 


Sunday  Legislation.  43 

they  come  Sunday  in  preference  to  any  other 
clay.  Says  he,  "  I  don't  so  much  as  get  time 
to  go  to  early  mass,  and  I  am  compelled  to 
keep  busy  from  morning  till  night.  I  can't 
refuse  them ;  for  if  I  do  they  will  quit  me 
altogether,  and  I  shall  lose  my  business.  I 
wish  to  heaven  that  some  one  would  prosecute 
me!"  A  clearer  illustration  of  the  value  of 
the  law  of  rest  for  all,  in  securing  the  liberty 
of  rest  for  each  one,  can  hardly  be  asked  for, 
than  this  case  of  a  man  who  wants  to  be 
prosecuted  himself  in  order  to  protect  him 
from  the  necessity  of  doing  what  he  does  not 
want  to  do,  but  has  to  do  because  he  is  at 
liberty  to  do  it. 

I  put  it  to  the  whole  trade  of  labor-reformers, 
who  want  to  begin  their  reforms  by  breaking 
down  the  best  existing  safeguard  of  the  work- 
ingman's  liberty  of  rest  and  leisure,  —  I  put 
the  question  to  them,  and  beg  for  an  answer 
if  there  is  one  to  be  given.  After  you  have 
succeeded  —  I  do  not  say  in  amending  or  re- 
pealing, but  in  defying  and  nullifying,  our  six- 
day  law,  how  much  good  is  your  eight-hour 
law  likely  to  do  you,  supposing  that  you  get  it 


44   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

passed  ?  You  succeed,  by  mere  defiant  law- 
breaking,  in  trampling  down  a  statute  vener- 
able with  use,  anchored  deep  in  the  traditions 
of  the  people,  and  consecrated  by  many  a  sol- 
emn religious  sanction.  And  you  propose  to 
set  up  in  place  of  it  a  novel  invention  of  your 
own,  called  an  "  eight-hour  law."  Do  you  sup- 
pose, that,  when  you  have  taught  the  public 
how  little  you  care  for  law  when  it  interferes 
with  your  convenience,  you  will  find  it  an  easy 
matter  to  enforce  law  against  others  when  it 
interferes  with  their  convenience  ? 

But  here  I  wish,  with  perfect  candor,  to 
answer  a  question  which  does  not  seem  to 
me  to  be  adequately  answered  by  the  average 
" evangelical  Christian"  in  his  arguments  on 
this  subject.  Our  German  friend  will  ask 
whether  it  is  not  possible  to  make  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  prohibition  of  labor,  and  the 
prohibition  of  recreation  and  orderly  and  inno- 
cent amusement.  And  my  answer  to  him  is 
(whatever  yours  may  be),  "  Yes,  it  is  possible, 
though  it  may  be  difficult ;  and,  whenever  as 
orderly  citizens  you  choose  to  move  in  this 
direction  for  amendments  of   the   law,  we  are 


Sunday  Legislation.  45 

ready  to  discuss  your  proposals  with  simple 
reference  to  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number."  It  is  useless  for  us  to  say  that  pub- 
lic amusements,  however  quiet  and  orderly, 
involve  labor  on  some  one's  part.  So  does 
public  worship.  It  is  labor  to  blow  a  church- 
organ,  as  much  as  to  blow  a  concert-hall  organ. 
No  legislation  pretends  to  protect  every  ones 
Sunday  rest.  The  general  principle  is  modi- 
fied by  considerations  of  public  convenience 
and  expediency.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
world,  then,  to  hinder  us  from  entering  into 
the  candid  discussion  of  any  proposed  amend- 
ment intended  to  relax  the  rigor  of  the  law 
concerning  amusements,  while  still  guarding, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  provisions  of  the  law 
concerning  labor.  Some  of  you  will  object, 
perhaps,  that,  in  our  duties  as  citizens,  we  are 
bound  to  be  governed  by  the  divine  teachings, 
and  that  legislation  ought  to  be  conformed  to 
the  word  of  God.  Agreed.  But  then,  noth- 
ing is  so  clearly  revealed  in  the  word  of  God, 
whether  in  Old  Testament  or  in  New,  if  men 
would  but  see  it,  as  this,  —  that  the  divine  rule 
of  public  legislation  is  the  rule  of  expediency, 


46    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

and  not  the  rule  of  absolute  right  and  wrong. 
The  divine  example  of  public  legislation  is  to 
give  "laws  that  are  not  good,"  when  such  laws 
are,  on  the  whole,  the  best  that  the  case  ad- 
mits. Legislation  is  never  more  contrary  to 
the  word  of  God,  than  when  it  is  rigorously 
conformed  to  the  word  of  God,  without  regard 
to  expediency,  local  and  temporary.  I  repeat 
it,  then :  there  is  nothing  in  our  convictions  of 
religious  duty  to  hinder  us  from  candidly  dis- 
cussing any  measure  that  may  be  considered 
to  be  for  the  good  of  society,  and  looking  to- 
wards a  relaxation  of  the  Sunday  law  respect- 
ing amusements,  while  maintaining  it  in  vigor 
respecting  labor.  Possibly  this  might  be  ac- 
complished by  carefully  amending  the  law. 
But  one  thing  is  perfectly  sure,  it  cant  be 
done  by  breaking  the  law.  You  cannot  break 
this  statute  half  across,  and  leave  the  other 
half  sound.  Some  of  these  fine  days,  as  busi- 
ness grows  brisk,  you  will  get  back  from  your 
Sunday  excursion  or  beer-garden,  and  find  a 
notice  that  next  Sunday,  owing  to  pressure 
of  business,  the  factory  will  run,  or  the  shop 
will   be  open,  and  that  you  are  wanted  for  a 


Sunday  Legislation.  47 

clay's  work.  And  if  you  think  that  then  you 
will  be  able  to  plead,  for  your  rest  and  your 
liberty,  the  very  statute  that  you  have  defi- 
antly broken  for  your  amusement,  you  will  have 
ample  time  and  opportunity  to  find  out  your 
mistake. 

Here,  after  all,  we  face  this  subject  in  its 
gravest  aspect.  For  I  say  it  with  all  respect 
to  this  assembly,  yet  not  expecting  you  to 
agree  with  me,  —  expecting,  rather,  that  some 
of  you  will  be  shocked  when  you  hear  it  said, 
—  that  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  is  not  so 
serious  a  matter  as  the  sanctity  of  human  law 
and  government ;  that  the  damage  and  peril 
to  society,  the  church,  the  state,  and  the  affront 
to  the  authority  of  God,  in  the  habitual  pub- 
lic defiance  of  the  Sunday  laws,  consist  less 
in  the  violation  of  the  commandment  than  they 
do  in  the  violation  of  the  statute.  The  divine 
authority  less  distinctly  binds  us  to  the  com- 
mandment than  it  binds  us  to  the  statute. 
There  are,  amongst  us,  citizens  of  many  dif- 
ferent religions,  and  citizens  of  no  religion  at 
all  ;  and,  even  among  Christian  citizens,  there 
are   the  widest   conscientious  variations    as   to 


48    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

the  binding  force  of  the  fourth  commandment 
on  the  individual  and  the  state ;  and  still  fur- 
ther variations  as  to  the  nature  of  the  duties 
which  that  commandment  enjoins,  if  it  is  bind- 
ing. You  may  lament  these  variations ;  you 
may  hold  them  blameworthy ;  but  you  cannot 
deny  the  fact  that  they  exist ;  and  it  will  have 
a  very  wholesome  effect  on  our  dealings  with 
the  matter,  to  look  this  inexorable  fact  dis- 
tinctly in  the  face,  and  to  bear  habitually  in 
mind,  that  the  traditionary  notions  of  sabbati- 
cal duty  to  which  we  are  accustomed  are  the 
notions  only  of  a  very  small  party  in  the  Chris- 
tian church.  But  here  is  a  point  on  which  the 
divine  will  is  unmistakable, — a  point  on  which 
there  is  no  room  for  variation  among  Chris- 
tians, or  among  good  citizens  ;  to  wit,  that  the 
laws  of  man  are  to  be  obeyed  as  under  God's 
authority,  and  for  God's  sake.  The  peril  of 
the  present  time  is  not  half  so  much  that  we 
are  becoming  a  nation  of  Sabbath-breakers, 
as  that  we  are  becoming  —  as  a  well-known 
writer  has  recently  said — "a  nation  of  law- 
breakers." '     The    question,  whether  the    Sun- 

1   Dangerous  Tendencies  in  American  Society. 


Sunday  Legislation.  49 

day  laws  shall  be  amended,  or  even  repealed, 
and  the  common  rest-day  of  rich  and  poor  be 
left  unprotected  from  the  rapacity  of  commer- 
cial and  industrial  competition,  is  a  question 
which,  grave  and  portentous  as  it  is,  it  is  never- 
theless possible  to  contemplate  with  equanim- 
ity. Whenever  this  question  comes  up,  we  are 
bound  to  meet  our  fellow-citizens  with  patient 
argument,  and  abide  the  arbitrament  of  the 
ballot-box.  Under  our  form  of  government, 
if  the  majority,  on  such  a  point,  will  be  fools, 
there  is  no  way  but  to  let  them  learn  their  folly 
by  the  consequences.  But  to  this  other  ques- 
tion, whether  law,  while  it  is  law,  shall  be 
enforced  and  obeyed,  there  is  but  one  answer 
compatible  with  the  dignity  or  life  of  the  state. 

The  argument  which  I  have  now  set  forth 
approves  the  Sunday  laws  of  any  state  only  so 
far  as  those  laws  confine  themselves,  with  sim- 
plicity and  good  faith  :  first,  to  maintaining  the 
day  of  rest  from  labor  as  a  universal  privilege  ; 
and,  secondly,  to  taking  the  necessary  precau- 
tions lest  the  privilege  be  abused  to  the  detri- 
ment   of   public    order    and    morals.      For  any 


50   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

thing  beyond  this,  these  laws  must  find  their 
defence  —  if  there  is  any  rational  defence  to  be 
found  —  in  some  other  line  of  reasoning.  But 
there  can  be  no  higher  act  of  wisdom  on  the 
part  of  those  who  desire  to  see  the  universal 
repose  and  quiet  order  of  the  New-England 
Sabbath  day  revived  and  perpetuated,  than,  of 
their  own  accord,  to  see  to  it  that  our  Sunday 
laws  are  cleared  of  every  thing  which  they 
ought  not  to  contain.  The  early  legislation  of 
New  England  on  this  subject  was  undoubtedly 
directed,  in  some  particulars,  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  a  religions  observance  of  the  day. 
This  was  consistent  with  the  State-Church,  or 
rather  the  Church-State,  notions  of  that  time  : 
it  is  utterly  irreconcilable  with  our  own  prin- 
ciples. I  do  not  know  that  any  vestige  of  it 
remains.  Judging  from  the  digest  of  the  Sun- 
day laws  of  New  England,  lately  published  by 
my  friend,  Walter  Learned,1  our  statute-books 
are  clear  of  any  remainder  of  it.  If  not,  they 
ought  to  be. 

Further,  we  are  suffering,  both  in  the  com- 
munity and  in  private  consciences,  the  re-action 

1  In  Good  Company,  No.  2. 


Sunday  Legislation.  51 

from  overstrained  statements  concerning  sab- 
batical duty.  There  is  a  canon  of  Sunday 
observance,  written,  not  in  the  scriptures  of 
either  Testament,  but  in  the  Westminster 
Catechism  and  the  traditions  of  the  elders, 
commanding  that  "the  entire  time"  that  can 
be  spared  from  works  of  necessity  or  mercy 
shall  be  "spent  in  acts  of  worship,  public  or 
private."  I  do  not  speak  of  this  as  a  rule  that 
is  seriously  professed  by  any  of  us.  On  the 
contrary,  we  have,  one  and  all,  abandoned  it 
as  a  rule  of  our  own  action  ;  and  we  keep  it,  if 
at  all,  only  for  torturing  tender  consciences, 
and  for  judging  our  neighbors  by.  But  it 
would  not  be  altogether  strange  if  the  spirit 
of  it  might  be  found  lurking  here  and  there 
in  some  neglected  corner  of  the  statute-book. 
If  so,  it  is  of  high  importance  to  the  success 
of  our  cause  that  it  be  exorcised. 

Further  still,  it  is  not  an  unheard-of  thing 
for  earnest  and  zealous  labors  in  behalf  of  a 
good  cause  to  become  infected  with  that  other 
spirit,  which  has  been  alleged  to  have  Boston 
for  its  metropolis,  but  which  has  its  spheres  of 
lively  activity  in    many  a   place   beside,  —  the 


52    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

spirit  of  "malignant  philanthropy."  It  is  this 
spirit  that  is  slanderously  imputed  to  the  Eng- 
lish Puritans,  who  interfered  with  bear-baiting, 
it  is  said,  less  out  of  pity  to  the  bear  than  out 
of  spite  at  the  enjoyment  of  the  bystanders. 
How  naturally  it  attaches  itself  to  such  mat- 
ters as  we  have  in  hand,  might  be  illustrated 
by  many  instances  ;  but  it  is  enough  to  take 
a  single  one  from  Mr.  Gilbert  Hamerton.  He 
tells  us  of  a  certain  neighborhood  in  Scotland, 
along  the  shore  of  a  loch  which  it  was  some- 
times necessary  to  cross  on  Sunday.  The  local 
code  of  ethics  permitted  the  crossing  in  such 
cases,  but  on  condition  that  it  should  be  made 
with  a  row-boat,  not  with  a  sail-boat.  The  row- 
boat  involved,  indeed,  more  labor ;  but  the  sail- 
boat might  involve  enjoyment,  and  this  was  a 
thing  to  be  prevented  at  any  sacrifice !  If  our 
Sunday  laws  are  to  be  preserved  and  enforced, 
it  must  be  made  unmistakably  plain  that  the 
object,  both  of  the  law  and  of  its  enforcement, 
is  not  to  prevent  enjoyment,  but  to  secure  the 
universal  privilege  of  rest  from  labor  without 
detriment  to  the  good  order  and  morals  of 
society.     No  reasonable  person  will  deny  that 


Sunday  Legislation.  53 

it  is  competent  for  the  same  law  which  inter- 
feres to  liberate  men  from  labor,  to  interfere 
to  protect  society  from  the  disorderly  abuse 
of  this  liberty.  The  question  of  the  manner 
and  degree  of  either  interference  is  an  open 
question,  to  be  decided  by  considerations  of 
expediency. 

We  cannot,  fellow-citizens,  keep  it  too  dis- 
tinctly in  mind  that  this  part  of  the  Sabbath 
question,  the  matter  of  Sunday  laws,  is  a  mat- 
ter of  government  and  police,  —  a  political 
matter;  and  I  know  of  no  way  of  carrying 
political  measures,  in  a  republic,  but  to  have 
votes  enough.  There  is,  indeed,  a  certain  class 
of  reformatory  politicians  who  have  a  mystical 
idea  of  carrying  elections  without  votes,  —  to 
whom  there  is  no  scripture  in  all  the  Bible  so 
precious  as  that  of  the  thinning-out  of  Gideon's 
army.  These  are  men  of  faith,  who  believe 
that  a  few  warm-hearted,  earnest  citizens,  that 
will  march  fearlessly  and  vigorously  up  to  the 
polls,  and  jam  their  tickets  into  the  ballot-box 
with  sufficient  energy,  can  easily  outvote  ten 
times  their  number.  It  is  well  for  us  to  leave 
this  sort  of  imbecility  to  the  school  of  profes- 


54    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

sional  reformers  to  whom  it  belongs,  and  coolly 
to  take  the  measure  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
situation,  —  for  it  has  difficulties.  The  meas- 
ures that  are  to  be  carried  and  enforced,  let  us 
remember,  will  not  be  carried  by  the  votes 
exclusively  of  evangelical  Christians  of  ortho- 
dox doctrinal  views,  —  that  is,  not  without  a 
very  extraordinary  revival  in  the  mean  time. 
It  is  well  that  we  should  ask  ourselves  whose 
the  other  votes  are  to  be.  It  is  well,  for  every 
reason,  that  we  should  put  ourselves  on  ground 
so  solid,  so  broad,  so  unselfish  and  unpartisan, 
so  clearly  right,  that  no  reasonable  man  can 
object  to  it  as  unreasonable ;  that  we  should 
refuse  to  allow  this  great  social  interest  to  be 
complicated  with  other  questions  ;  in  short, 
that  we  should  narroiu  the  issue,  and  widen  the 
basis  of  co-operation. 


Note.  —  The  following  letter  was  addressed  to  the 
Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Connecticut  Legislature,  in 
support  of  the  writer's  memorial  for  a  Commission  of 
Inquiry  concerning  the  Sunday  Laws. 

Gentlemen,  —  Until  the  latest  moment,  I 
have  been  in   hopes   of   appearing   before  you 


Sunday  Legislation.  55 

to-morrow,  in  conformity  with  your  invitation, 
to  give  the  reasons  for  my  petition  for  a  com- 
mission of  inquiry  as  to  the  need  of  an  amend- 
ment of  the  Sunday  laws  of  the  State.  I  sub- 
mit the  more  willingly  to  the  urgent  personal 
reasons  which  prevent  my  going  to  Hartford, 
because  I  hope  that  my  written  communication 
will  accomplish  all  that  is  needful,  with  a  saving 
of  the  time  of  the  committee. 

Suffer  me,  at  the  outset,  to  forestall  a  possi- 
ble misconception.  I  do  not  seek  or  desire  any 
enforcement  of  a  religious  observance  of  Sun- 
day. The  objects  of  Sunday  legislation  should 
be  simply  and  solely  these  two  :  first,  to  secure, 
as  nearly  as  possible,  to  every  citizen  the  priv- 
ilege of  rest  from  labor ;  secondly,  to  provide 
that  the  general  rest  of  the  community  shall 
not  be  abused  to  the  detriment  of  good  order 
and  morals.  If  the  law  goes  beyond  this,  with 
any  needless  interference  with  convenience, 
pleasure,  or  even  amusement,  it  thereby  tends 
to  defeat  its  own  permanent  effectiveness ;  and 
the  pretence  which  is  clamorously  made,  year 
after  year,  that  the  law  is  thus  excessive,  is 
itself  a  reason,  not  indeed  for  hasty  amendment, 


56    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

but  for  deliberate  and  careful  inquiry,  such  as 
the  petition  asks  for. 

But  the  main  reason  for  a  commission  of 
inquiry  is  that  alleged  in  the  petition ;  to  wit, 
that  the  laws  in  question  not  only  are  openly 
and  habitually  violated,  but  in  some  cases, 
when  the  enforcement  of  them  has  been  at- 
tempted, have  been  insolently  defied  and  nulli- 
fied. It  is  obvious  that  the  successful  defiance 
of  the  law  by  influential  corporations  does  more 
than  to  retrench  certain  clauses  that  stand  in 
the  way  of  their  convenience :  it  practically 
abrogates  the  statute,  with  its  unspeakable 
blessings  to  the  community ;  it  inflicts  a  shame- 
ful insult  on  the  State,  and  weakens  that 
respect  for  the  laws  which  all  good  citizens  are 
bound  to  cherish.  These  are  grave  reasons,  I 
do  not  say  for  legislation,  but  for  inquiry. 

The  most  flagrant  and  insolent  violations  of 
the  law  are  Sunday  steamboat  excursions,  in 
defence  of  which  considerations  of  humanity 
and  public  good  are  sometimes  urged  with 
apparent  seriousness.  Such  considerations  may 
much  better  be  urged  in  favor  of  amending  the 
law,  than  of   defying  and    nullifying    the   law. 


Sunday  Legislation.  57 

And  I  submit  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  the  alle- 
gation of  them  is  a  sufficient  reason  for  inquiry 
into  the  truth  of  them.  A  commission  duly 
authorized  might  easily  ascertain  whether  such 
excursions,  as  now  conducted  in  violation  of 
law,  are  really  the  occasions  of  harmless  recre- 
ation and  refreshment  that  they  are  claimed  to 
be,  or  orgies  of  debauchery  such  as  they  are 
alleged  sometimes  to  be ;  and  might  furnish  to 
a  future  General  Assembly  materials  for  a  wise 
judgment  on  the  question,  whether  if  they  were 
made  lawful,  so  that  they  might  be  conducted 
by  law-abiding  citizens  instead  of  law-breakers, 
and  vigilantly  policed,  instead  of  being  ex- 
empted, as  now,  from  all  police  supervision 
whatever,  the  change  would  be  for  the  general 
advantage.  The  question  is  an  open  and  legiti- 
mate one,  and  of  grave  importance. 

To  sum  up,  then  :  every  argument  that  is 
used,  either  in  crimination  or  in  defence,  is  an 
argument  in  favor  of  legislative  inquiry;  and 
inquiry  is  all  that  the  petition  asks. 

I  beg  leave  to  add  one  word  more,  that  may 
indicate  the  spirit  in  which  the  petition  is 
offered.     It  is  my  personal  conviction  that  the 


58    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

inquiry  proposed  would  result  in  amendments 
of  the  Sunday  laws  in  the  direction  of  a  larger 
liberty ;  that  in  some  details  these  laws  are  not 
conformed  to  the  state  of  public  opinion,  nor 
to  the  exigencies  of  modern  society,  especially 
in  large  towns  ;  further,  that  there  are  trace- 
able in  them  some  remaining  vestiges  of  an 
ascetic  spirit,  and  of  a  disposition  to  enforce 
religious  duties  by  law.  I  should  hope  to  see 
all  such  faults  radically  removed,  as  the  result 
of  the  measure  sought  for  in  the  petition. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  gentlemen, 
With  great  respect, 

Your  fellow-citizen, 
LEONARD   WOOLSEY   BACON. 
Norwich,  Feb.  28,  1881. 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       59 


ENFORCEMENT  OF  SUNDAY  LAWS. 

SPEECH  TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  NORWICH,  MONDAY 
EVENING,  AUGUST  n,  187Q,  JUST  AFTER  THE  PUBLIC 
DEFIANCE  OF  THE  LAW  OF  CONNECTICUT  SECUR- 
ING A    WEEKLY  DAY  OF  REST. 

FELLOW  CITIZENS,  — Within  a  few 
months  past,  the  cities  of  New  London 
and  Norwich  have  begun  to  grow  accustomed 
to  sights  and  sounds  with -which  formerly  they 
have  been  unfamiliar.  It  has  once  been  a  mat- 
ter of  thankfulness  to  God,  of  worthy  pride  in 
view  of  the  condition  of  other  peoples,  —  a  mat- 
ter of  admiration  to  thoughtful  travellers  from 
foreign  lands,  that  here  the  first  day  of  the 
week  was  a  day  of  rest  and  quietness.  On 
that  day  the  peace  of  God  settled  down  over 
all  the  land.  The  din  of  labor  ceased,  and  the 
din  of  strife  and  of  merry-making ;  and  a  few 
quiet  hours  were  given  in  which  the  poorest 
home  might  be  made  happy  by  the  gathering  of 
the  family,  and  the  most    engrossed   and    toil- 


60   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

burdened  soul  might  at  least  have  its  opportu- 
nity, if  it  would,  to  worship  God  undisturbed 
by  calls  to  labor  or  solicitations  to  public  rev- 
elry. This  was  the  glory  and  beauty  of  the 
American,  —  the  New  England  Sabbath.  None 
felt  it  so  profoundly  as  those  who  had  grown 
up  in  lands  where  it  was  unknown.  Among 
those  who  have  come  hither  from  distant  parts 
of  the  world  to  study  the  causes  that  have 
given  to  America  her  pre-eminence  among  the 
nations,  and  to  New  England  her  pre-eminence 
among  the  American  States,  there  are  few  who 
have  not  been  able  to  recognize  that  the  Amer- 
ican superiority,  not  merely  in  moral  and  social 
order  and  in  general  intelligence,  but  even  in 
the  mere  matter  of  productive  industry,  was 
largely  due  to  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
calm  and  rest,  as  inherited  from  our  fathers, 
and  guarded  by  law  from  interruption  and 
abuse.  We  loved  and  gloried  in  our  quiet  Sun- 
day, and  thought  of  the  goodly  heritage  that 
should  be  the  birthright  of  our  children. 

This  glory  is  departed.  I  do  not  say  it  is 
endangered.  It  is  gone.  The  New  England 
Sabbath  in  New  London  and  Norwich  within 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       61 

these  few  months  has  ceased  to  be.  And 
whether  it  has  ceased  forever  is  for  the  citizens 
of  these  two  towns  to  say.  If  they  say  noth- 
ing, and  do  nothing,  within  a  few  weeks  more 
it  has  ceased  forever.  Individuals  and  fami- 
lies and  congregations  will  continue,  doubtless, 
without  molestation,  or  without  much  molesta- 
tion, to  follow  their  several  convictions  of  duty 
concerning  the  day,  as  Christian  families  and 
churches  do  in  heathen  countries.  But  the 
New  England  Sabbath  as  a  public  institution, 
guarded  by  public  law  from  invasion  and  abuse, 
is  —  dead.  This  revolution,  the  most  momen- 
tous, the  most  disastrous,  in  our  history,  will 
shortly  have  been  accomplished  by  your  acqui- 
escence. And  you  will  be  able,  by  and  by,  to 
say  to  your  children,  "  It  was  in  my  day,  dur- 
ing my  active  citizenship,  during  my  pastorship, 
during  my  term  of  public  office,  and  by  my 
dereliction  of  personal  and  official  duty,  that 
Norwich  lost  her  immemorial  glory  and  privi- 
lege of  a  restful  and  peaceful  Sunday,  —  that 
the  law  on  which  it  depended  was  suffered  to 
lapse  without  one  effort  to  assert  its  dignity 
and  validity,  and    all  for  lack    of   one  resolute 


62    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

citizen,  and  one  unflinching  official  in  the  right 
place  :  it  lapsed,  not  by  negligence  or  evasion 
or  furtive  violation,  unnoticed,  winked  at  or 
disregarded,  —  the  law  might  endure  all  these 
and  still  be  law,  —  it  lapsed  through  the  impu- 
dent defiance  of  the  law  by  a  petty  steamboat 
corporation,  before  whose  open  challenge,  '  We 
intend  to  violate  this  statute,  and  what  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it  ? '  the  citizens  held  their 
peace,  and  the  authorities  were  dumb.  Then  it 
was  that  the  law  of  the  quiet  Sabbath  died ;  for 
the  law  that  could  be  insolently  defied  by  this 
corporation  was  incapable  of  being  enforced 
thereafter  against  anybody.  And  when  this 
law  was  thus  insulted,  overridden,  trampled 
down,  all  law  suffered  with  it,  and  government 
itself  suffered  a  lasting  dishonor.  And,  to  this 
irreparable  damage  to  our  homes  and  native 
land,  we,  by  our  acquiescence,  were  parties  and 
accomplices."  Go,  say  this  over  to  yourself  as 
it  will  sound  twenty  years  hence !  Go,  take  it 
to  your  children  and  grandchildren  as  a  part  of 
the  record  of  your  life !  Go,  rehearse  it  to 
yourself  as  you  will  give  it  in  at  the  judgment- 
seat  of    God,  when  you  give  account    of   your 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       6$ 

duty  as  a  citizen !  For  this  is  what  is  meant 
when,  fortnight  by  fortnight,  in  open,  confessed 
defiance  of  the  law  of  the  State,  the  excursion 
steamer,  with  public  announcement,  with  its 
instruments  of  music,  with  its  private  stores 
of  whiskey,  and  with  its  complement  of  prosti- 
tutes, waits  on  Sunday  morning  at  the  dock  to 
solicit  the  company  of  your  children  and  your 
brothers  and  your  husbands,  and  when  on  Sun- 
day night  she  vomits  out  upon  the  dock  again 
her   passengers   debauched   and   drunk ; x    and 

1  "  The  excursion  of  the  Ella  last  Sunday  was  extensively  patron- 
ized ;  and  many  of  the  participants,  before  the  boat  reached  her  wharf 
at  night,  became  very  boisterous,  not  to  say  drunk,  thus  tending  to 
destroy  the  quiet  enjoyment  and  rest  supposed  to  be  the  leading 
features  of  a  Sunday  trip.  A  perfectly  honorable  and  unprejudiced 
gentleman  of  this  city,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  was  on  board  the 
boat,  supposing  that  the  excursionists  would  at  least  pay  some  respect 
to  the  day,  or,  in  any  event,  that  the  officers  of  the  boat  would 
see  that  law  and  order  prevailed.  He  says,  that,  long  before  the 
steamer  reached  her  wharf  in  this  city,  he  was  heartily  ashamed  of  the 
company  in  which  he  found  himself,  and  on  no  account  would  he 
again  patronize  the  craft  with  her  present  management  on  a  Sunday 
excursion.  -Drunkenness  and  disorder  were  quickly  visible  on  board, 
in  the  old  men  as  well  as  the  young  ;  and  a  general  hilarity  seemed  to 
be  diffused  among  the  party.  No  liquor  was  sold  on  the  boat,  but 
the  thirsty  passengers  were  frequently  seen  cooling  their  tongues  with 
hearty  draughts  from  capacious  pocket  flasks.  A  company  of  women 
from  a  house  near  the  Norwich  and  Worcester  Depot  (of  which  some 


64   Sunday  Obsei'vance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

you,  meanwhile,  sit  quietly  in  your  churches 
and  prayer-meetings,  and  dream  of  serving 
God,  when,  by  all  the  duties  he  has  laid  upon 
you  as  a  citizen,  God  is  calling  you  to  serve 
him  elsewhere  and  otherwise. 

I  beg  you  to  remark,  that  in  all  that  I  have 
said  thus  far  concerning  the  Sabbath  rest,  and 
in  all  I  have  yet  to  say,  I  have  said  and  shall 
say  no  word  of  it  as  an  institution  of  God,  or 

of  the  'fathers'  have  testified  that  it  is  a  'quiet  and  orderly  place') 
were  along,  and  during  the  day  became  so  exhilarated  that  one  of 
them  had  to  be  led  off  the  boat  on  her  return  to  this  city.  The 
bathing  scenes  and  conduct  of  this  party  while  at  the  Hill  are  also 
said  to  have  been  scandalous.  When  a  party  of  young  gentlemen  — 
so  called  —  induce  a  comrade  who  has  but  recently  entered  the  walks 
of  married  life  to  leave  the  side  of  his  newly-made  bride,  despite  her 
expostulations,  and,  after  plying  him  with  liquor,  send  him  back  to 
her  drunken  and  brawling,  and  then  laugh  at  her  tears,  it  is  certainly  a 
question  whether  or  not  Sunday  excursions  are  of  benefit,  especially 
those  of  this  sort." — Norwich  correspondence  of  the  New  Haven 
Register,  Aug.  3,  187Q. 

The  character  of  these  excursions,  infamous  as  it  has  been,  makes 
no  essential  part  of  my  argument.  It  is  quite  indifferent  to  me 
whether  the  steamboat  company  claim  that  these  orgies  were  an  affair 
of  their  own,  and  not  to  be  imputed  as  an  unavoidable  incident  to  a 
Sunday  excursion ;  or  that  the  company  are  not  to  blame  because 
on  Sunday  excursions  such  things  cannot  be  helped.  This  is  an  affair 
between  the  company  and  its  customers,  with  which  the  public  has 
Jittle  concern.     Both  parties  are  "  in  the  same  boat." 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       65 

the  subject  of  a  divine  command.  For  I  am 
speaking  to  you  as  citizens  with  reference  to 
your  duties  to  society.  The  command  of  God, 
applying-  to  the  individual  conscience,  has  rea- 
sons and  arguments  and  sanctions  of  its  own. 
And,  if  I  could  but  get  the  serious  attention  of 
that  multitude  of  merry-makers,  I  would  gladly 
speak  to  them  of  God's  word  and  will  in  this 
thing,  how  reasonable  and  benevolent  they  are, 
and,  in  their  true  meaning,  how  far  from  the 
austerity  that  has  sometimes  been  imputed  to 
them  or  superinduced  upon  them.  But  I  am 
not  speaking  to  them  about  their  private  duty 
to  God,  but  to  you  about  your  civil  duty  to  the 
community.  And  it  is  not  your  duty  as  a 
citizen  to  enforce  God's  law  upon  your  neigh- 
bors, but  to  sustain  human  law,  which  God 
requires  men  to  obey,  and  citizens  to  sustain, 
and  magistrates  to  execute.  As  a  Christian,  as 
a  man,  you  have  to  do  with  the  Sabbath  as  a 
religious  institution.  As  a  citizen,  you  have 
only  to  do  with  it  as  a  civil  institution.  As  a 
citizen,  you  are  not  charged  with  enforcing  the 
Decalogue,  only  with  sustaining  the  statute. 
This  is  not  a  religious  matter  at  all,  except  as 


66    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

it  is  your  religious  duty  to  be  faithful  to  your 
secular  responsibility  as  a  citizen. 

You  thought,  perhaps,  that  the  laws  concern- 
ing Sunday  were  laws  prescribing  a  precept  of 
the  Christian  religion,  concerning  the  obliga- 
tion of  which  some  consciences  might  be  in 
doubt.  Not  at  all.  What  word  is  there  in  the 
statutes  that  would  need  to  be  changed  if  this 
country  were  Buddhist  or  Confucian  or  Athe- 
ist instead  of  Christian  ?  What  word  is  there 
about  worship,  in  the  statute,  except  to  provide 
that  it  shall  not  be  molested  ?  The  law  makes 
no  attempt  to  enforce  religion  upon  Sunday. 
It  simply  institutes  a  weekly  civil  holiday,  and 
surrounds  it  with  safeguards  such  as  the  inter- 
ests of  society  require.  It  makes  no  preamble  ; 
it  sets  up  no  pretension  to  divine  right  in  this 
law,  beside  the  divine  right  that  belongs  to 
every  righteous  enactment  of  constituted  au- 
thority. Nobody  denies  the  competency  of  the 
State  to  establish  this  weekly  holiday  ;  nobody 
asks  to  have  it  abrogated.  There  are  not  men 
enough  to  call  themselves  a  party,  who  do  not 
want  Sunday  maintained  by  law  as  a  day  of 
rest.       Only    one    business    corporation     says, 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       67 

"  If  only  we  can  do  business  while  all  the  rest 
are  restrained  from  it,  we  shall  make  a  lot  of 
money.  We  don't  want  the  law  repealed. 
We  want  it  enforced  against  all  other  business 
establishments.  We  want  the  shops  and  fac- 
tories shut  up  by  law,  and  the  employees  com- 
pelled to  rest.  We  want  other  companies  to 
show  a  decent  regard  for  right  and  duty. 
And  then  what  we  want  for  ourselves  is  to 
break  the  law.  We  can  influence  votes.  We 
can  have  a  mob  to  clamor  for  us.  We  can 
get  demagogues  very  cheap  to  howl  for  the 
dear  people  and  the  poor  workingman.  We 
will  break  the  law  ;  and  touch  us  if  you  dare  !  " 
And  I  don't  suppose  you  do  dare,  do  you  ? 
You  would  not  really  have  the  courage,  would 
you,  citizens,  magistrates,  of  Norwich,  to  op- 
pose a  steamboat  company,  when  it  expected  to 
make  a  great  deal  of  money  by  breaking  the 
law  ?  Frankly,  I  do  not  believe  you  would. 
I  have  no  strong  expectation  of  it  on  your 
part. 

Allow  me  to  say  just  here  in  passing,  by  way 
of  personal  explanation,  that  I  think  my  posi- 
tion and  purpose  in  this  matter  have  been  very 


68   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

much  mistaken  by  the  public  generally.  I 
don't  care  for  the  mistake  on  my  own  account, 
but  it  seems  desirable  for  the  sake  of  the  pub- 
lic that  they  should  understand  the  matter  cor- 
rectly. It  seems  to  be  conceived  that  I  have 
undertaken  to  dictate  to  the  people  of  Nor- 
wich how  they  shall  spend  their  Sundays  ;  and, 
in  particular,  that  I  have  started  with  the  reso- 
lution and  expectation  of  breaking  up  the  Sun- 
day pleasure  excursions  of  the  steamer  "  Ella," 
in  which  some  persons  wish  me  success,  and 
the  large  majority  (I  judge)  prophesy  that  I 
shall  meet  with  defeat  and  disappointment. 
Now,  this  is  a  misconception.  I  have,  in  the 
exercise  of  my  unquestionable  rights  as  a 
citizen,  taken  certain  steps  which  may,  or  may 
not,  result  in  the  stopping  of  these  excursions 
by  the  due  course  of  law.  If  these  steps  do 
so  result,  it  will  be  no  affair  of  mine,  and  no 
triumph  of  mine.  If  they  fail  of  this  result, 
I  shall  be  neither  defeated  nor  disappointed, 
nor  even  surprised.  For  I  have  been  distinctly 
warned,  from  the  beginning,  that  I  was  enter- 
ing on  a  fruitless  experiment  ;  that  the  author- 
ities would  not  sustain  me  ;  that  the  newspaper 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       69 

would  not  sustain  me  ;  that  public  opinion  would 
not  sustain  me  ;  that  the  law,  to  which  I  had 
referred  the  matter,  could  not  be  enforced.  I 
have  gone  forward  with  this  distinct  under- 
standing. And,  if  any  of  you  would  like  to 
know  why  I  have  gone  forward,  I  would  like 
to  have  you  know ;  and  I  will  tell  you,  as  briefly 
as  possible. 

It  is  almost  exactly  twelve  months  ago  that 
a  gratifying  invitation  was  pressed  upon  me  to 
come  to  Norwich  and  settle  permanently  as  a 
minister  of  the  gospel.  As  I  was  considering 
the  question,  it  was  represented  to  me  more 
than  once,  from  various  quarters,  that  Norwich 
was  a  place  of  bad  character  for  crime  and 
lawlessness.  (This,  of  course,  was  no  reason 
for  not  coming  hither  to  preach  the  gospel  ; 
although  it  might  be  a  reason  for  not  bring- 
ing one's  children  with  him  to  be  educated 
here.)  From  that  day  to  this,  I  have  heard 
these  accusations  against  the  character  of  the 
town  repeated,  publicly  and  privately,  often 
abroad,  sometimes  by  citizens  of  high  standing 
at  home.  I  must  say  that  some  things  have 
come  to  my  knowledge  since  my  coming  here 


yo  Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

that  tend  to  confirm  these  reproaches.  "  Do 
I  mean  the  Cobb  trial  ? "  No,  I  don't  mean  the 
Cobb  trial.  That  is  an  honor  to  the  character 
of  the  town,  —  not  a  disgrace.  It  is  not  the 
cases  that  you  try  and  punish  that  debase  the 
character  of  the  town  and  smirch  its  good  name  ; 
but  the  cases  that  you  don't  punish,  that  you 
don't  try,  that  you  don't  allow  to  be  tried,  that 
(so  the  criminal's  defenders  impudently  boast) 
you  don't  dare  to  allow  to  be  tried.  I  have  the 
astounding  document  in  my  possession  which 
shows  how,  in  a  crime  of  the  blackest  turpi- 
tude, a  blood-guilty  felony,  in  which  the  crim- 
inal was  held  for  trial,  the  evidence  was  ready, 
the  prosecuting  officers  were  ready  and  confi- 
dent of  conviction,  the  courts  were  ready,  and 
the  law  was  clear,  twoscore  of  the  very  best 
citizens  of  this  town  interposed  to  arrest  the 
course  of  law,  to  throw  the  protection  of  their 
personal  influence  over  the  criminal,  and  to 
condone  the  crime.  Such  things  as  these  on 
the  one  hand.  On  the  other  hand,  I  need  not 
recount  what  beautiful  and  honorable  evidences 
one  meets  with  here,  of  public  spirit  and  virtue, 
and  of   love  of   law  and    order.     You  will  not 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.        ji 

wonder  that  I  was  perplexed  by  the  two  con- 
trary testimonies,  and  felt  that  I  would  like  to 
know  —  and  I  am  sure  you  will  not  consider 
it  an  idle  curiosity  —  I  would  like  to  know  just 
what  sort  of  place  Norwich  was,  on  this  ques- 
tion of  law  and  order.  And  right  here,  at 
hand,  is  the  very  opportunity  of  finding  out. 
I  have  been  hearing,  almost  ever  since  I  came 
to  the  town,  the  protests  of  good  citizens  about 
the  unlawful  Sunday  excursions  that  had  been 
lately  instituted.  People  were  indignant  about 
them,  it  was  said.  Persons  high  in  office  char- 
acterized them  as  a  nuisance  and  a  shame. 
A  memorial  against  them,  I  am  told,  was 
signed  last  year  by  several  hundreds  of  re- 
spectable names.  Here,  then,  was  just  the 
case  that  would  show  what  Norwich  was, 
—  whether  it  was  the  lawless,  crime-breeding 
place  that  some  alleged,  or  whether  it  is  a 
place  where  good  citizens,  demanding  the  en- 
forcement of  the  laws,  can  secure  it.  Now, 
you  will  understand  what  my  position  is  in 
this  matter.  I  have  not  undertaken  to  enforce 
the  Sunday  laws.  This  is  not  my  business. 
I  have  not  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to  the  Sun- 


72    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

day  excursions.  Persons  of  experience  and 
responsibility  tell  me  it  cannot  be  done,  —  and 
perhaps  they  know.  What  I  have  undertaken, 
in  the  discharge  of  my  duty  as  a  citizen,  — 
less  my  duty  than  that  of  many  others,  but 
mine  when  all  the  rest  have  failed,  —  is  to  put 
this  matter  in  a  shape*  to  be  tried,  and  so  to 
find  out  what  sort  of  a  place  Norwich  is,  — 
what  sort  of  citizens  it  has,  what  sort  of  gov- 
ernment it  has.  And  I  hope  to  know  in  about 
three  weeks. 

It  is  not,  then,  with  any  sanguine  expecta- 
tions of  a  visible,  practical  result  that  I  press 
upon  you  this 

(I.)  First  point,  that  the  fact  to  which  I  call 
your  attention  is  a  bold,  insolent,  defiant  vio- 
lation of  the  law.  We  do  not  raise  the  ques- 
tion, —  we  cannot  raise  the  question,  —  we 
cannot  entertain  the  question  just  at  this  mo- 
ment,—  whether  it  is  a  good  law,  in  its  par- 
ticulars, or  a  bad  law.  Farther  on,  I  shall 
have  something  to  say  on  this  point ;  and  by 
and  by,  when  in  a  loyal  way,  as  good  citizens, 
they 'may  choose  to  raise  the  question  of  repeal 
or  amendment  in  due  course  of  legislation,  we 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.        73 

shall  be  ready,  I  am  sure,  to  go  into  this  ques- 
tion thoroughly,  and  in  no  unfriendly  or  illiberal 
spirit.  But,  so  long  as  the  situation  is  one  of 
open  defiance  of  the  authority  of  law,  we  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  try  conclusions  between 
law  and  lawlessness,  and  find  out  which  is  the 
stronger :  and,  if  we  are  beaten  (as  very  prob- 
ably we  shall  be),  amendment  or  repeal  of  the 
law  is  of  the  very  slightest  consequence ;  for 
law  is  dead.  The  steamboat  company  is  King ; 
the  howling  demagogue  is  its  prime  minister ; 
the  mob  is  its  standing  army ;  and  we,  who 
never  were  in  bondage  to  any  man,  are  its 
subjects.  If  this  be  so,  we  want  to  know  it ; 
and  we  therefore  make  our  contention  on  this 
single  point.  This  is  the  law.  We  claim,  we 
demand, — no,  I  will  not  presume  too  far,  for 
I  do  not  know  where  you  stand  in  this  matter, 
—  /claim  and  /demand  the  enforcement  of  it 
as  my  right  as  a  citizen.  And  I  expect  to  be 
refused  if  law-abiding  and  law-sustaining  citi- 
zens are  only  timid  enough,  and  the  govern- 
ment is  inactive  and  unfaithful  enough,  and  the 
steamboat  corporation  is  bold  enough  and  dis- 
loyal   enough,  and    the    baser  sort  are  clamor- 


74    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

ous  enough,  and  ignorant  enough  of  their  own 
interests. 

And  now,  having  defined  our  one  main  issue, 
we  are  in  a  position  to  add, 

(II.)  In  the  second  place,  that  it  is  an  aggra- 
vation of  the  offence  of  these  open  and  defiant 
law-breakers,  that  they  are  attacking  a  good 
and  salutary  law.  I  speak,  not  from  the  reli- 
gious point  of  view,  but  from  the  point  of  view 
of  any  good  citizen,  when  I  say  that  the  par- 
ticular laws  now  defied  are,  in  general,  good 
and  salutary  laws,  —  laws  of  inexpressible  value 
to  every  interest  of  society  and  every  class  of 
society.  In  general,  I  say ;  for  it  is  obvious 
that  these  ancient  statutes  do  require  amend- 
ment in  detail  to  fit  them  to  circumstances 
and  conditions  that  did  not  exist  when  they 
were  made,  to  the  requirements  of  large  towns 
and  modern  society.  And,  whenever  it  is  de- 
cided that  law  can  be  enforced,  I,  for  one,  shall 
gladly  join  in  seeking  the  amendment  of  them. 
If  it  is  decided,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
law  can  be  successfully  defied,  it  is  merely 
frivolous  to  talk  of  amending  or  repealing  or 
enacting  at  all.     The  Legislature,  on  this  sub- 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.        75 

ject,  may  be  interesting  to  the  public  as  a 
debating-society ;  but  the  public  has  no  other 
interest  in  its  proceedings. 

What,  then,  is  the  inexpressible  value  to  the 
public  of  these  laws  which  are  now  defied  ? 
This :  that  they  guarantee  to  the  whole  com- 
munity that  which  could  not  exist  without 
them,  —  a  public  day  of  rest.  If  this  should 
be  lost,  the  community  in  all  its  classes,  but 
most  of  all  in  its  poorer  classes,  will  lament 
it  with  long,  perhaps  with  unavailing,  regret. 
But  if  these  laws  are  successfully  defied,  and 
so  broken  down,  your  day  of  rest  is  lost  ;  for 
it  is  only  by  virtue  of  these  laws  that  the  day 
of  general  public  rest  subsists.  A  weekly  day 
of  rest  is  the  universal  desire.  Every  man, 
woman,  and  child  wants  it,  and  would  feel  per- 
sonally aggrieved  and  injured  if  it  should  be 
taken  away.  And  the  way  in  which  this  uni- 
versal desire  is  secured  to  all,  is  by  means  of 
a  law  on  the  statute-book,  which  (however  it 
may  be  neglected  or  evaded  in  some  cases) 
stands  on  the  statute-book  in  full  vigor,  and  is 
ready  to  be  enforced  when  the  case  requires, 
and    is    actually    enforced    whenever   a   single 


j 6    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

citizen,  however  humble  and  however  solitary, 
demands  the  enforcement  of  it  as  his  ri^ht, 
and  insists  upon  his  demand,  as  I  do  insist 
to-night. 

But  I  am  ready  to  meet  the  objection  which 
some  of  you  have  it  at  your  tongue's  end  to  put : 
"  What  is  the  need  of  a  law  to  secure  what 
everybody  wants  ?  If  everybody  wants  it,  will 
it  not  come  of  itself  ?  Will  not  the  unanimous 
desire  of  the  people,  that  one  day  of  the  week 
be  kept  free  from  the  encroachments  of  busi- 
ness, be  a  sufficient  security  for  this  without 
the  aid  of  law  ?  " 

I  answer,  Yes ;  just  so  much  as  the  unani- 
mous desire  of  the  property  owners  on  Main 
Street  would,  without  law,  preserve  the  line 
of  the  street  from  encroachments,  —  just  so 
much,  and  no  more.  It  is  the  general  interest 
of  the  whole  property,  and  every  part  of  it,  on 
both  sides  of  the  way,  that  the  width  of  that 
street  should  not  be  reduced.  You  could  get 
a  remonstrance,  signed  by  every  person  in  the 
city  that  could  hold  a  pen,  against  permitting 
owners  of  frontage  on  that  street  to  build  out 
on   it  a  single  foot ;  and  all  the  owners  them- 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       yy 

selves  would  join  in  the  remonstrance.  What 
is  the  need  of  any  law,  then,  to  protect  the  line 
of  that  street  ?  If  everybody  wants  it,  it  will 
take  care  of  itself,  won't  it  ?  And  yet  there  is 
not  a  man  of  you  that  knows  how  to  pretend  to 
be  so  dull  as  not  to  see  that  it  is  only  by  the 
force  of  law  that  the  object  of  the  unanimous 
desire  can  be  secured, — a  law  ready  to  be  en- 
forced, actually  enforced  on  demand,  and  that 
cannot  be  defied.  There  may  be  furtive  and 
casual  violations  of  the  law  :  these  may  be  over- 
looked and  neglected,  and  the  law  will  not  lose 
its  force  thereby,  nor  the  rights  of  the  public 
be  impaired.  But  let  there  be  one  man  or  one 
corporation  sufficiently  strong,  rich,  influential 
of  votes,  and  sufficiently  insolent  and  unscru- 
pulous to  say,  and  say  successfully,  "  I  am 
going  to  build  out  three  feet  in  my  front,  and 
what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?" — let 
but  one  humble  citizen  make'  his  complaint 
to  authorities  and  courts  in  vain,  and  the  line 
of  your  street  is  gone.  Encroachment  will 
follow  encroachment,  the  encroachment  of  one 
excusing  and  necessitating  the  encroachment 
of    his     neighbor,     until    the    thoroughfare    is 


78    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

choked,  and  the  interest  of  all  has  been  de- 
feated by  the  selfishness  of  one.  And  allow 
me  to  add  here  (for  it  meets  an  objection  that 
may  impose  on  some  minds),  that  it  makes  no 
difference  at  all  whether  the  citizen  complain- 
ing, and  complaining  in  vain,  of  the  infraction 
of  the  public  right,  is  personally  injured,  or 
whether  anybody  is  actually  injured,  by  this 
particular  encroachment,  or  whether  the  com- 
plaint is  made  out  of  solicitude  for  the  future 
welfare  of  the  town.  Suppose,  even,  that  the 
encroachment  pretends  to  be  for  the  public 
convenience,  — that  the  benevolent  citizen  pro- 
poses to  build  a  drinking  fountain  in  front  of 
his  shop,  for  instance  ;  so  long  as  the  encroach- 
ment is  made  without  law,  against  law,  and  in 
successful  defiance  of  the  law,  invoked  for  its 
removal,  it  is  all  the  same.  The  law  is  down, 
and  the  street-line  is  broken  for  everybody. 

The  analogy  is  strong,  and  holds  at  all  points. 
The  great  common  rest,  opened  by  a  beneficent 
statute  in  the  midst  of  the  toil  of  the  week,  is 
like  the  village  green  reserved  for  public  re- 
freshment and  delight  amid  the  bustling  streets 
of   a    New    England   village,   sacred    from    the 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.        79 

invasion  of  business,  where  the  children  of 
the  rich  and  poor  may  play  alike,  where  the 
sacred  graves  of  other  generations  wake  tender 
thoughts  and  holy  memories,  and  amongst 
them  the  church  of  Christ  invites  to  prayer 
and  praise,  — 

"  And  points  with  taper  spire  to  heaven." 

The  whole  people  want  it :  everybody  is  will- 
ing to  respect  it,  on  condition  that  everybody 
else  shall  be  required  to  respect  it  too.  Only, 
if  there  is  to  be  no  law  about  it,  and  these 
immemorial  rights  of  the  public  are  to  be  left 
open  to  a  general  scramble,  in  which  the  ear- 
liest squatter  on  the  public  privilege  will  get 
the  best  advantage  and  the  biggest  share,  then 
it  is  too  much  to  hope  from  human  nature  that 
the  scramble  will  not  begin. 

Fellow-citizens,  the  scramble  has  begun.  An 
insolent  corporation  has  squatted  on  your  old 
graveyard,  and  is  digging  the  foundation  for 
his  money-making  shop  among  the  bones  of 
your  fathers.  It  may  be  difficult  for  you  to 
deal  with  him  ;  but,  if  you  give  it  up,  it  will 
be    impossible   for  you  ever  to  deal    with    any 


80   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

other.  We  propose  —  /  propose  —  to  try  the 
strength  of  the  public  law  against  this  intruder 
on  our  common  rest.  If  we  fail,  as  it  seems 
to  me  somewhat  likely  that  we  shall,  in  a  year 
or  two  we  shall  have  competing  lines  of  excur- 
sion steamers,  advertising  their  rival  attractions 
in  "The  Bulletin"  (with  an  encouraging  notice 
from  the  editor,  of  course) ;  and  you  will  wish 
you  could  stop  it,  but  you  can't.  By  and  by 
the  railroad  companies  will  enter  into  the 
business,  with  new  attractions  on  the  bill  ; 
and  you  will  wish  you  could  stop  them,  but 
you  can't.  Not  very  long  hence,  the  same 
argument,  the  necessity  of  recreation  for  the 
poor  workingman,  which  requires  a  Sunday 
excursion  in  summer,  will  be  found  to  require 
a  Sunday  afternoon  and  evening  variety  the- 
atre—  a  quiet  and  well-conducted  variety  thea- 
tre—  in  the  winter.  And  you  will  ache  under 
the  infliction,  and  wish  you  could  abolish  it  ; 
but  you  can't.  Your  law  is  dead  ;  and  you, 
perhaps,  have  helped  to  murder  it. 

This  is  not  all.  The  man  who  finds  now 
that  he  can  make  money  on  Sunday  with  his 
steamboat,   will    find  before  long,  if    times  im- 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       81 

prove  and  orders  crowd  him,  that  he  can  make 
money  on  Sunday  by  running  his  factory.  And 
he  will  do  it,  —  quietly,  of  course,  but  he'll  do 
it.  And  why  shouldn't  he  ?  You  cannot  stop 
him  then.  Now  you  can,  by  law.  But  he  is 
to  defy  and  break  down  the  law  that  holds  him 
back.  Society  will  lament  in  all  its  ranks,  and 
most  of  all  in  its  ranks  of  honest  working- 
men,  that  the  blessed  common  rest  is  gone,  — 
stolen, — no,  there  is  no  stealth  about  it, — 
openly  robbed  away,  before  the  face  of  the  citi- 
zen and  the  law,  and  that  now  there  may  be 
seven  working-days  in  the  week  at  the  discre- 
tion of  the  corporation  or  contractor ;  and  you 
will  mourn  the  day  when  you  were  tickled  by 
the  offer  of  a  cheap  excursion,  or  bullied  by  the 
insolence  of  a  steamboat  corporation,  into  giv- 
ing up  this  priceless  heritage  of  the  American 
workingman  ;  and  you  will  long  and  long  that 
you  could  get  back  your  one  day  of  rest  in 
seven.     But  you  can't. 

This  is  not  all.  Let  it  go  abroad  in  all  the 
papers  that  the  Sunday  law  in  all  these  towns 
has  been  successfully  defied,  and  about  how 
many  weeks   do   you    think   it  will    be   before 


82    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

some  gentleman  from  New  York,  with  a  for- 
eign accent,  and  a  small  stock  of  fancy  goods, 
will  open  a  little  store  on  Main  Street,  for  a 
few  weeks  only,  and  will  let  it  be  understood 
that  it  will  be  open,  with  half  a  shutter  down, 
on  Sunday  afternoons,  after  the  hours  of  ser- 
vice, for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  workingmen 
and  working-women  who  really  haven't  any 
day  but  Sunday  for  quiet  shopping.  You 
won't  like  this,  you  storekeepers  on  the  same 
street ;  but  you  cannot  stop  it.  And,  what  is 
more,  you  will  have  to  fall  in  with  it  sooner  or 
later,  or  retire  from  business.  You  will  try  to 
make  a  combination  against  it  at  first ;  but  one 
after  another  will  begin  to  break  ranks,  and 
send  just  one  clerk  for  the  Sunday  business. 
By  and  by  the  understanding  will  be  that  each 
clerk  may  be  at  liberty  every  second  Sunday, 
or  at  least  one  Sunday  in  every  month.  The 
strong  and  respectable  firms  will  hold  out  a 
long  time  against  the  new  way.  They  will 
come  into  it,  slowly,  reluctantly  ;  but  they  will 
come  into  it.     They  will  have  to,  or  sell  out. 

All   this  is  not  coming  at  once.     The  force 
of   religious   principle    and    the    force  of    habit 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       8$ 

will  retard  it.  And  this  is  the  very  fact  over 
which  these  law-breakers  are  inwardly  chuck- 
ling as  they  count  their  fortnightly  gains. 
They  don't  want  it  to  come  all  at  once.  The 
longer  the  better.  What  they  want  is,  that 
everybody  else  should  be  forced  to  suspend 
his  business,  so  as  to  make  customers  for 
theirs.  Work  presses  you  hard  in  your  shop 
or  store,  and  there  are  not  days  enough  in  the 
week  for  what-  you  can  profitably  do.  But 
Saturday  night  shuts  down  ;  and  the  law  says 
to  you  and  to  your  neighbor,  and  to  all  your 
competitors  in  business,  Rest  there.  And  all 
the  wheels  of  society  and  commerce  are  still, 
and  the  blessed  truce  of  God  comes  down  like 
a  benediction,  and  the  world  is  at  peace.  And 
now  into  the  midst  of  this  serene  and  beauti- 
ful calm  comes  snarling  in  the  insolent  whistle 
of  the  steamboat  company,  saying,  "  I'll  break 
all  this.  The  law  shall  bind  you,  but  it  shan't 
bind  me.  My  disloyalty  shall  grow  rich  and 
fat  on  your  obedience  to  law.  What  do  I  care 
for  you,  or  your  antiquated  laws?  What  do  I 
care  what  the  effect  is  going  to  be  on  Norwich 
five  years  hence,  or  one  year  hence.     I  make 


84    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

my  money  now.  I  am  going  to  do  as  I  please 
about  it ;  and  touch  me,  if  you  dare  ! "  And, 
so  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge  at  present,  you 
don't  dare. 

There  ought  to  be  authority  —  there  is 
authority,  there  ought  to  be  power,  will,  and 
courage,  with  authority  —  to  take  this  public 
robber  of  the  public  privileges  by  the  throat, 
and  shake  him  in  the  grip  of  the  law  until  he 
shall  let  go  his  felon's  hold  upon  your  rights 
and  mine.  I  am  not  blaming  or  accusing  the 
government  and  officers  of  this  city  for  their 
action  or  non-action  in  the  matter.  They 
understand  the  ground,  and  I  don't.  They 
know  how  strong  the  steamboat  company  is, 
and  whether  it  is  stronger  against  the  law  than 
they  are  with  the  law.  No  man,  no  officers, 
ought  to  be  blamed  for  not  doing  that  which  is 
simply  an  impossibility.  Perhaps  it  is  true 
that  government  is  not  strong  enough  in  Nor- 
wich, that  there  is  not  enough  of  public  virtue 
in  the  citizens  behind  it,  that  there  is  too  for- 
midable a  force  of  lawlessness  in  front  of  it, 
for  it  to  be  possible  to  execute  the  law  against 
the  law-breaker.      Perhaps    this    is   true.     This 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       85 

is  what  people  say  about  you ;  and  this  is  the 
ground  that  seems  to  be  taken  by  leading  citi- 
zens, official  and  unofficial,  with  whom  I  have 
conversed.  Perhaps  it  is  true.  One  thing  I 
happen  to  know,  however,  remotely  bearing  on 
the  subject,  which  I  merely  mention  as  a  mat- 
ter of  incidental  interest.  This  isn't  so  at  New 
London.  I  happen  to  know,  on  entirely  satis- 
factory evidence,  that  in  that  city  they  have  a 
public  sentiment  high  enough,  and  a  govern- 
ment strong  enough,  and  a  mayor,  —  his  name 
is  Thomas  Waller,  of  the  Democratic  party ; 
and  I  wish  he  would  move  to  Norwich,  so  that 
I  might  have  the  opportunity  of  voting  for  him 
for  something,  — a  mayor  who  is  brave  and  reso- 
lute and  wilful  enough  to  meet  and  handle  any 
law-breaker,  even  a  steamboat  company.  I  am 
not  blaming  you  here.  I  am  not  casting  cen- 
sure on  the  officials  of  the  city.  Perhaps  the 
case  is  different  in  Norwich,  and  this  cannot 
be  done  here.  That  is  the  thing  that  people 
say  about  you,  and  that  is  the  thing  that  I  am 
intending  to  find  out. 

These  laws  for  the  protection  of  Sunday,  — 
Blue  Laws,  as  they  are  called  by  those  who 


86    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

take  pleasure  in  insulting  the  memory  of  their 
own  fathers,  and  the  character  of  their  native 
State,  by  repeating  the  hundred-times-exploded 
calumnies  of  an  old  and  malignant  libel,  — 
these  ancient  statutes,  antiquated  in  phrase- 
ology and  details,  and  plainly  requiring  amend- 
ment to  suit  them  to  conditions  of  society 
unknown  at  the  time  of  their  enactment,  are 
yet,  as  I  have  said,  of  priceless  value  as  secur- 
ing to  every  man,  what  he  could  not  have  with- 
out them,  his  weekly  day  of  rest.  They  are  of 
like  value  for  another  reason,  which  I  can 
hardly  do  more  than  mention,  though  it  is  not 
of  less  importance  than  the  first. 

These  laws  create  a  universal  public  holi- 
day ;  and  a  public  holiday  is  a  public  peril. 
A  necessity  it  may  be, — it  is  ;  but  the  history 
of  all  nations  shows  it  to  be  a  dangerous 
necessity.  The  State  which  by  positive  enact- 
ment institutes  this  dangerous  blessing,  strik- 
ing off  all  the  common  restraints  of  regular 
industry,  is  bound  to  guard  it  to  the  utmost 
from  abuse.  The  State  has  a  perfect  right  to 
make  a  holiday  ;  but  it  has  no  right  to  make  a 
holiday,  and    take    no    precautions   against  the 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       87 

mischiefs  that  tend  to  result  from  it.  It  has 
no  right  with  one  hand  to  lock  the  doors  of 
the  factory,  the  shop,  the  school,  against  hon- 
est industry  and  useful  pursuits,  and  turn  the 
business  population  into  the  street,  and  then 
with  the  other  hand  fling  wide  the  enticing 
portals  of  temptation.  The  authority  that  has 
the  right  to  say  to  the  capitalist,  or  the  corpo- 
ration, or  the  contractor,  you  shall  not  exact 
labor  on  that  day,  has  a  right  to  say,  and  is 
bound  to  say,  to  the  speculator  in  amusements, 
you  shall  not  start  a  carousal  or  a  show  or  an 
excursion  on  that  day.  Wives  and  mothers 
have  a  right  to  demand  that  the  beneficent  law 
which  makes  it  possible  for  Sunday  to  be  a 
day  of  blessed  domestic  happiness,  shall  be 
attended  by  provisions  that  shall  guard  it  from 
becoming  a  terror  and  a  curse,  —  a  day  when 
they  shall  sit  the  long  hours  through  in  trem- 
bling, lest  at  night  those  whom  they  love  shall 
be  tumbled  in  upon  them  through  the  street- 
door,  drunk,  —  that  the  state  shall  not  loose  the 
iron  band  of  industry  without  at  the  same  time 
tightening  the  rein  of  salutary  law.  Our  great 
productive    and    commercial    industries     have 


$8    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

rights  in  the  matter.  They  know  the  finan- 
cial loss  there  is  in  a  disordered  Sabbath ;  and, 
if  they  are  wise,  they  will  take  their  stand  at 
the  door  of  the  City  Hall,  alongside  of  the 
workmen  whose  liberty  of  weekly  rest  is  men- 
aced by  the  insolence  of  a  law-defying  corpo- 
ration, and  demand,  in  a  voice  not  to  be 
disregarded,  that  the  State,  which  interferes  to 
take  their  employees  out  of  business  on  Satur- 
day night,  shall  also  interfere  to  save  them 
from  being  returned  to  business  on  Monday 
morning  exhausted,  demoralized,  debauched. 

Observe,  now,  the  two  points  which  we  have 
reached.  We  have  placed  our  main  contention 
on  this  simple  point,  that  the  act  in  question  is 
a  defiant  and  insolent  violation  of  law. 

Then,  secondly,  we  have  noted  it  as  an 
aggravation  of  the  offence,  that  the  law  which 
it  violates  and  openly  threatens  to  nullify  and 
destroy  is  a  good  and  salutary  law,  of  priceless 
value  to  society,  to  every  interest  of  society,  to 
every  member  of  society,  rich  or  poor,  high  or 
low. 

I  beg  you  now, 

(III.)  To  note,  as  a  further  aggravation  of  the 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       89 

offence,    the    vile    dishonesty,    hypocrisy,    and 
cant  with  which  it  is  endeavored  to  apologize 
for  the' offence.     This  unlawful  speculation  of  a 
greedy  steamboat  company  is,  forsooth,  a  phil- 
anthropic  undertaking.     It   is    devised   by  the 
friends    of   the   workingman  —  the   poor  work- 
ingman  —  the    dear    workingman.     The    poor, 
dear   workingman   is    persecuted   by    a   lot    of 
straight-laced    Puritans,    of    stern,    hard,    cold- 
hearted  religionists,  of   overbearing,  domineer- 
ing parsons  and  deacons,  who  are  resolved  that 
the  poor,  dear  workingman  shall  have  no  chance 
to  enjoy  himself  on  his  one  only  holiday.     But 
poor  workingmen,  dear  workingmen,  don't  you 
be  afraid.     The  steamboat  company  will  stand 
by  you.     The  steamboat  company  is  the  poor 
man's   friend.     We   will   protect   you   in  your 
right    to    your    holiday,  —  your   only   holiday. 
Come  right  aboard,  and  don't  be  afraid.     And 
mind  you   have  your  — a  — your  — well,  so  to 
speak,  your  change  ready  at  the  captain's  office. 
The  fare  is  extremely  cheap,  for  it  is  quite  a 
philanthropic  enterprise. 

Shame  on  this  pack  of  snivelling  lies  !     How 
came  the  American  workingman   to  have  this 


90   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

one  holiday  in  every  week  ?  Answer  me  that ! 
Who  gave  to  the  American,  the  Connecticut 
workingman,  this  peculiar  privilege,  this  royal 
inheritance,  and  guaranteed  it  by  all  the  author- 
ity of  the  commonwealth, — the  priceless  pos- 
session of  an  inviolable  Sabbath  rest,  his  own, 
his  glory,  that  sets  him  without  a  peer  among 
the  workingmen  of  almost  all  the  world  beside, 
and  makes  him  at  once  their  admiration  and 
their  envy  ?  How  did  he  come  by  it  ?  To 
whom  does  he  owe  it  ?  Well,  strangely  enough, 
it  appears  on  inquiry  that  he  owes  it  to  that 
implacable  enemy,  the  straight-laced  Puritan  ! 
And  what  is  his  sole  defence  and  guaranty  of 
the  inviolability  of  this  sacred  right  against  the 
irrestrainable  rapacity  of  competing  business 
interests  ?  Nothing  in  the  world  but  these 
despised,  antiquated,  derided,  and  scoffed-at 
statutes, — these  "blue  laws,"  which  you  talk 
so  merrily  of  throwing  overboard  as  obsolete 
and  preposterous,  and  incapable  of  being  en- 
forced. And  who  is  it  that  is  threatening  to 
break  down  the  safeguards  of  the  one  secure 
and  quiet  refuge  for  exhausted  toil,  to  tear 
away  the  walls  of  legal  enactment  that  guard 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       91 

the  Sabbath  rest  ?  Oh,  this  is  the  strangest 
thing  of  all !  for,  come  to  look  him  in  the  face, 
he  turns  out  to  be  none  other  than  the  poor 
workingman's,  the  dear  workingman's,  the  poor, 
dear  workingman's,  affectionate  friend,  —  the 
liberal  and  philanthropic  steamboat  company. 
Workingmen  of  Norwich,  don't  be  fooled ! 
Think  twice  over  it,  and  look  at  the  bargain  on 
both  sides,  before  you  make  up  your  minds  to 
trade  off  your  birthright  for  this  miserable 
mess  of  pottage  that  the  benevolent  steamboat 
company  are  stirring  up  for  you.  But  if  you 
find  these  corporation  blandishments  too  allur- 
ing, and  the  savor  of  their  somewhat  strong- 
scented  excursions  too  charming  to  be  resisted, 
then  remember,  by  and  by,  the  warning  I  give 
you  beforehand,  that  the  time  is  not  far  off 
when  you  will  find  the  little  finger  of  an  unre- 
stricted corporation  to  be  heavier  than  the  loins 
of  a  Puritan  statute.  It  seems  to  you  very  fine 
when  Mr.  Paul  Greene  snaps  his  fingers  in  the 
face  of  the  prosecuting  officer,  and  steams 
down  the  river,  blowing  his  impudent  steam- 
boat whistle  in  the  ears  of  Christian  congrega- 
tions assembled  for  the  worship    of   Almighty 


92    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

God,  and  asks  derisively  the  famous  question  of 
that  other  poor  man's  friend,  Mr.  William 
Tweed,  "What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ? " 
This  is  very  fine  indeed,  and  shows  a  noble 
independence  of  the  laws  of  the  State.  But  I 
would  just  advise  you  to  think  ahead  a  little, 
and  fancy  how  it  is  going  to  sound  to  you, 
three  or  four  years  hence,  when  the  benevolent 
Mr.  Paul  Greene's  factory  whistle  (if  he  has 
one)  wakes  you  up  before  daylight  on  a  Sunday 
morning,  with  a  hint  that  you  are  wanted  in  the 
mill,  and  that,  if  you  have  any  objections  or 
scruples  about  working  on  Sunday,  he  can  find 
somebody  else  in  your  place  ;  and  "  what  are 
you  going  to  do  about  it?"  And  hadn't  you 
better  be  getting  your  answer  ready  in  ad- 
vance ?  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ? 
You  will  begin  to  talk  about  the  law  and  your 
rights.  And  the  workingman's  friend  will  tell 
you,  "  The  law !  that  ridiculous  old  blue  law  is 
played  out  long  ago.  Don't  you  remember  the 
jolly  Sunday  excursions  we  used  to  have  on 
'The  Ella,'  all  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  work- 
ingman  ?  "  And  what  will  you  say  then  ?  You 
will    not   say   much,  I    suspect ;    but   you   will 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       93 

begin  to  wish  in  your  heart  that  when  Mr. 
Paul  Greene  invited  you  to  join  him  in  break- 
ing down  the  old  Sunday  law,  you  had  taken 
the  precaution  to  ask  him  what  sort  of  Sunday 
law  he  was   going   to   give   you   in   the   place 

of  it. 

I  have  detained  this  vast  throng  of  people  a 
long   time   already,  but  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary that  I  should  say  a  few  words  in  answer 
to  the  one  solitary  objection    of   the   slightest 
weight  that  I  have  heard  alleged   against   the 
enforcement   of   this   law  against   the    Sunday 
pleasure-excursions  of  the  steamer  "  Ella."    The 
objection  is  this  :  that  the  law  is  so  worded  as. 
to  be  capable  of  vexatious,  annoying,  malicious 
applications;    to  which  it  is  sometimes    added 
by   those   who   think    they   know,    that    these 
annoying  and   malicious    applications  will    cer- 
tainly be  made,  vindictively,  on  the  part  of  the 
steamboat  company  in  case  it  is  interfered  with. 
Undoubtedly   the    objection    is    not   without 
ground.    Our  statutes  date  from  a  period  before 
the  existence  among   us    of   large    towns  with 
their   peculiar    requirements,    and    of    modern 
conveniences  of  transportation,  that  have  grown 


94   Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws, 

almost  or  quite  into  necessities.  The  law,  if 
rigorously  enforced,  might  require  some  trans- 
portation companies  to  revise  their  time-tables 
(which  does  not  strike  me  as  an  evil),  and 
might  perhaps  (though  this  is  doubtful)  inter- 
fere to  an  injurious  extent  with  the  street-car 
and  omnibus  service.  Some  such  inconven- 
iences as  this  would  have  to  be  endured  until 
the  law  should  be  amended.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  society  would  be  able  to  bear  up  under  the 
burden  for  a  few  months. 

The  answer  to  this  objection  is  already  given, 
and  it  is  an  overwhelming  one.  Over  against 
the  petty  inconveniences  that  may  result  from 
enforcing  the  law,  I  set  the  enormous,  the 
almost  infinite  loss  that  inevitably  will  result 
to  society  if  the  law  is  successfully  defied ;  and 
there  I  leave  that  matter. 

It  is  the  remark  of  no  religious  zealot,  but 
of  one  of  the  coolest  and  shrewdest  students  of 
practical  politics,  the  late  Horace  Greeley,  in 
one  of  his  letters  from  Europe,  that  we  in 
America  are  shut  up  to  the  choice  between  the 
Puritan  Sabbath  and  the  Parisian  Sabbath. 
This  issue  is  now  before  you,  citizens  ;  and  in  a 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       95 

few  more  weeks,  whatever  you  may  do  or  not 
do,  the  decision  will  have  been  made. 

Before  the  matter  is  irrevocably  settled  by 
your  action  or  your  inaction,  I  could  wish  you 
might  stand  with  me  an  hour  on  Sunday  morn- 
ins:  in  the  "  labor-market "  at  Geneva,  and  see 
the  troops  of  dull,  tired,  sodden-looking  labor- 
ers, in  their  ragged  blouses,  unwashed  from  the 
grime  and  sweat  of  one  week's  work,  trudging 
off  sluggishly  and  wearily,  "  like  dumb,  driven 
cattle,"  to  the  work  of  the  next  week.  Are 
these  slaves  ?  you  ask.  Slaves  !  Bless  you,  no, 
my  dear  man  !  These  are  freemen.  These  are 
voters  and  citizens  in  a  land  of  universal  suf- 
frage, under  the  freest  government  on  earth, 
with  an  advanced  and  liberal  constitution  of 
the  latest  French  invention  and  with  all  the 
modern  improvements.  No  "blue  laws"  here: 
they  had  blue  laws  once  in  Geneva  (though  they 
never  did  in  Connecticut),  but  they  have  laughed 
them  down  long  ago.  This,  which  you  see,  is  lib- 
erty,—  complete,  untrammelled  liberty.  Every 
one  of  these  free  citizens  has  a  right  —  a  proud, 
inviolable  right  —  to  work  on  Sunday  if  he 
chooses.     And  this  is  what  it  ends  in  for  him  ; 


96    Sunday  Observance  and  Sunday  Laws. 

and  this  is  where  it  will  end  for  you,  if  you 
choose  to  make  the  costly  experiment.  The 
workingman  who  may  work  on  Sunday,  when 
work  is  wanted  has  got  to  work  on  Sunday. 
For  the  liberty  of  rest  for  each  one 
depends  on  a  law  of  rest  for  all. 

Think  of  it !  Think  of  it  twice !  Think  of 
it  again  !  and  then  say  whether  you  will  barter 
away  your  birthright,  the  American  Sunday, 
the  universal  privilege  of  rich  and  poor,  for 
this  miserable  French  delusion,  a  Parisian  holi- 
day, through  which  one  half  the  people  are 
condemned  to  toil,  that  the  other  half  may 
frolic. 

I  have  done.  I  stand  before  you  here  a  soli- 
tary citizen,  with  not  one  influential  friend  at 
my  back,  to  state  this  case  to  you,  as  I  have 
already  stated  it  to  the  prosecuting  officer  and 
to  the  executive  officers  of  the  city.  The  pros- 
ecuting officer  will  do  his  duty :  he  has  no 
option  in  the  case.1  The  mayor  will  do  his 
duty,  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt,  accord- 
ing  to    his  conscientious  understanding  of   it. 

1  This  turned  out  to  be  a  mistake.  When  it  came  to  the  scratch, 
the  attorney  flinched. 


Enforcement  of  Sunday  Laws.       97 

Whether  you  will  do  your  duty  or  not  I  do  not 
know.  I  have  delivered  my  soul.  On  every 
hand,  as  I  walk  the  streets,  I  hear  nothing  but 
presages  of  defeat,  with  expressions  sometimes 
of  exultation,  sometimes  of  sympathy.  Exult, 
I  beg  you,  to  your  hearts'  content,  but  save 
your  sympathies  till  they  are  wanted.  I  cannot 
be  defeated.  You  may  be  defeated.  But  I 
defy  the  world  and  the  Devil  to  defeat  me,  for 
my  work  is  done.  I  have  dragged  these  two 
most  reluctant  parties  together,  —  the  Law  and 
the  Law-breakers,  —  and  compelled  them  to 
stand  face  to  face  in  the  civil  forum  and  in  the 
forum  of  the  public.  Henceforth,  it  is  no  fight 
of  mine,  although  my  rights  and  liberties  as 
well  as  yours  are  at  stake  in  it.  But  I  shall 
stand  by  and  watch  the  progress  of  it ;  and 
shortly  I  shall  know,  and  the  State  shall  know, 
and  the  land  shall  know,  what  is  the  character 
of  Norwich  as  a  law-abiding,  law-sustaining, 
law-enforcing  city. 


II. 


SIX  SERMONS  ON  THE   SABBATH 
QUESTION. 

By  GEORGE  BLAGDEN  BACON. 


PREFACE. 


THIS  book  is  simply  what  it  pretends  to  be,  a 
series  of  sermons  preached  to  the  author's 
own  congregation.  He  has  preferred  to  print  them 
unaltered;  adding,  however,  occasional  references 
in  the  form  of  foot-notes.  And,  if  the  book  shall 
seem  to  be  needlessly  diffuse  or  unduly  rhetorical 
in  its  style,  it  is  only  just  to  remember  that  it  was 
designed  to  be  spoken,  not  to  be  read. 

It  is  not  probable  that  there  is  any  thing  new 
in  the  argument  herein  presented.  Indeed,  it  is 
scarcely  possible  to  say  any  thing  new  on  a  subject 
which  has  been  so  long  and  so  thoroughly  discussed. 
But  the  argument  for  the  observance  of  the  Lord's 
Day,  as  these  sermons  present  it,  is  not  the  one  to 
which  the  American  churches  are  in  the  habit  of 
listening;  and  it  therefore  had  the  merit  of  fresh- 
ness to  most  of  those  who  heard  it.  Moreover,  the 
discussion  seemed  to  be  timely,  in  view  of  recent 
agitations  of  "  the  Sunday  question  "  in  New  York 
and  New  Jersey;   and  some  persons  found  it  useful 


102  Preface. 

in  the  relief  of  perplexities  by  which  their  minds 
had  been  troubled.  Others,  hesitating  fully  to  ac- 
cept the  argument,  desired  the  opportunity  to  exam- 
ine it  more  carefully.  The  volume  is,  therefore, 
printed  especially  for  the  use  of  those  to  whom  the 
sermons  were  first  preached. 

But  it  is  believed  that  the  wider  publication  of 
it  may  be  useful.  For  there  are  many  Christian  peo- 
ple, who,  while  greatly  approving  and  even  adopting 
what  has  been  called  the  "  Anglo-American  "  practice 
with  regard  to  the  Lord's  Day,  have  never  been 
satisfied  with  the  theory  which  influential  writers  in 
England  and  America  have  supposed  to  be  essential 
to  that  practice.  And  it  is  not  pleasant  for  those 
who  are  thus  honestly  obliged  to  differ  from  their 
brethren,  to  find  themselves  put,  even  by  implica- 
tion, outside  of  the  number  of  "evangelical  Chris- 
tians," and  to  be  told  that  the  opinions  which  they 
hold  are  "defective,  erroneous,  and  worthless,"  or 
"  productive  of  extreme  mischief,"  '  or  the  like. 
Against  such  "judgment  of  the  brethren,"  to  which 
there  seems  to  be  a  constant  tendency,  not  only  on 
the  part  of  individuals,  but  even  on  the  part  of  cor- 
porations, this  volume  may  serve  as  a  timely  protest. 

1  See  Gilfillan's  The  Sabbath.  American  Tract  Society's  edition, 
PP-  576,  577- 


Preface.  103 

For  though  that  protest  has  been  often  made,  and 
with  the  sanction  of  most  venerable  and  authoritative 
names,  it  needs  to  be  repeated  constantly.  And 
just  now  it  will  be  a  useful  encouragement  to  some 
perplexed  consciences  to  be  reminded,  that,  if  they 
must  hold  such  views  as  those  herein  set  forth,  they 
can  hold  them  without  sin. 

For  this  reason,  among  others,  and  because  it  is 
believed  that  these  views  are  really,  as  they  were 
honestly  designed  to  be,  in  the  interest  of  the  better 
observance  of  the  Lord's  Day,  they  receive  a  publi- 
cation which  was  not  at  first  intended  for  them. 


THE   SABBATH   QUESTION. 


I. 
THE   SABBATH    OF   GOD. 

"  Erjus  tfje  rjeabens  ant)  tr/e  eartfj  btxz  fimsrjeo,  ano  all  tfjc 
ijost  of  tfjem.  &ntf  on  tfje  seoentij  oag  (Soft  enoetJ  rjis  foorn 
Sxrbtcfr  fte  JjaO  tnaoe ;  ano  rje  resteo  on  tfje  sebentrj  Dag  from  all 
rjts  roorft  fefjicfj  rjc  nao  maoe.  &no  &oo  fclrsseo  tfye  sebnttfj 
Hag,  ano  sanctifaO  it :  because  ttjat  in  it  fje  fjao  resteo  from  all 
fjts  toorfe  forjtcrj  ®oo  created  ano  maoe."  — Gen.  ii.  1-3. 

IT  is  impossible  to  turn  these  earliest  pages 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  without  peculiar 
interest,  in  which  there  is  mingled  something 
of  irrepressible  reverence.  If  for  no  other  rea- 
son than  their  extreme  antiquity,  then  for  that, 
they  are  sufficiently  venerable.  But  they  chal- 
lenge our  reverence  not  for  that  only ;  the 
themes  with  which  they  are  occupied  are  of 
such  sublime  importance,  and  the  statements 
which  they  make  are  uttered  with  such  sim- 
plicity, such  dignity,  such  poetic  beauty,  such 

105 


io6     ♦        The  Sabbath   Question. 

philosophic  wisdom,  that  we  cannot  read  them 
without  increasing  wonder  and  deepening  ven- 
eration. Puzzled  we  may  often  be,  in  our  en- 
deavors to  interpret  them  ;  perplexed  by  the 
apparent  contradictions  which  we  find  in  them, 
.when  we  compare  them  with  the  records  dis- 
covered by  the  researches  of  science  ;  forced  to 
reject  old  explanations,  and  to  take  up  with  new 
hypotheses  concerning  them ;  but  we  cannot 
treat  them  with  contempt  or  with  indifference. 
We  may  discover  that  they  are  not  what  we  at 
first  thought  they  were,  —  that  they  are  not,  in 
all  cases,  to  be  taken  literally,  —  that  in  matters 
strictly  scientific  they  are  probably  not  authori- 
tative ;  but  if  we  should,  therefore,  infer  that 
the  world  has  outgrown  these  first  chapters  of 
the  Book  of  Genesis,  and  can  afford  to  disre- 
gard them,  we  should  make  a  very  serious 
mistake  indeed. 

For  if  these  pages  do  not  teach  us  geology, 
as  we  used  to  think  they  did,  they  teach  us 
something  better  and  more  valuable  than  geol- 
ogy. If  they  do  not  teach  us  chronology,  they 
teach  us  truth  of  more  eternal  interest  than 
chronology.     They  assert  some  things  concern- 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  107 

ing  God,  and  some  things  concerning  man, 
which  it  is  of  the  profoundest  importance  that 
we  should  know  and  ponder,  — things  which  are 
fundamental  to  all  true  religious  thought  and 
to  all  high  religious  activity.  The  revelation 
of  a  personal  God,  and  of  man  as  made  in  the 
image  of  God, — if  these  first  pages  of  Genesis 
declared  no  other  truths  than  these,  still  they 
would  be  of  most  incalculable  value.  One  God, 
from  whom  are  all  things  ;  one  man,  made  in 
the  image  of  God, — these  are  the  two  prime 
facts  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  world's 
history.  God  and  man, — these  are  the  two 
great  actors  in  that  history.  The  relation  of 
God  to  man,  the  relation  of  likeness,  —  though 
at  an  infinite  distance,  yet  real  likeness  not- 
withstanding,—  this  is  what  makes  possible  a 
science  of  theology.  The  relation  of  man  to 
God,  a  relation  which  makes  possible  some 
reciprocity  of  affection,  this,  I  might  almost 
say,  is  the  very  definition  of  religion.  Such 
considerations  as  these  will  show  us  why  it  is 
that  these  first  pages  of  the  Bible  are  not  to 
be  discarded  as  if  obsolete  and  worthless. 

There    seems    to   be    another   truth,  of   pro- 


io8  The  Sabbath   Question. 

found  interest  and  value,  —  a  truth  somehow 
grounded  upon  this  relation  between  God  and 
man,  —  hinted  at  in  the  verses  which  I  have 
chosen  for  our  text.  It  will  not  be  easy, 
perhaps,  to  draw  it  forth,  and  state  it  in  such 
a  way  as  shall  convey  no  false  impression. 
The  work  of  explaining  these  first  chapters 
of  Genesis  is  not  at  all  easy.  We  read  of  God 
as  working  six  days,  to  create  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,  and  resting  on  the  seventh. 
And  we  find  some  parallel  drawn  between 
God  and  man,  as  working  and  as  resting. 
And  all  sorts  of  questions  occur  to  us,  —  ques- 
tions which  it  is  much  easier  to  ask  than  to 
answer.  What  are  these  six  days  in  which  God 
wrought  these  works  ?  What  is  this  seventh 
day  in  which  he  rested  from  them  ?  What  is 
his  work  ?  What  is  his  rest  ?  Is  he,  then,  ever 
tired  ?  Or  is  he  ever  idle  ?  And  what  analogy 
can  there  be  between  such  words  as  "work" 
and  "  rest  "  applied  to  God,  and  the  same 
words  applied  to  man  ? 

And  yet  analogy  of  some  sort  seems  to  be 
hinted.  Here  is  this  mysterious  assertion  that 
our  human  nature  is  somehow  in  the  image  of 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  109 

God ;  and  here  is  the  observance  of  rest,  on  our 
part,  grounded  on  the  fact  that  God  himself 
rested,  and  sanctified  and  blessed  the  day  on 
which  he  rested.  Surely  there  is  something  to 
be  learned  concerning  our  own  duty,  concern- 
ing our  own  privilege,  concerning  that  "rest" 
spoken  of  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  *  (or, 
as  it  stands  in  the  original,2  that  "  keeping  of 
Sabbath"),  which  "remaineth  for  the  people  of 
God,"  if  we  can  learn  what  God's  own  Sabbath, 
of  which  this  text  speaks,  signified,  and  wherein 
it  consisted. 

Let  us  rather  say  "consists"  and  "signifies," 

—  using  the  present  tense,  and  not  the  past. 
For  I  believe,  and  I  shall  try  to  show,  that 
God's  Sabbath  still  continues.     Need  we  insist, 

—  nay,  even  can  we  suppose,  that  the  seventh 
day,  which  God  blessed  and  sanctified,  was 
really  a  day  of  twenty-four  hours'  duration, 
according  to  the  measure  of  a  man's  compre- 
hension ?  If  the  six  days  which  preceded  it 
were,  as  used  to  be  supposed,  six  literal  days  of 
twenty-four  hours  each,  then  this  also  should 
be  such.     But  if,  as   science   te41s   us,  and  as 

1  Chaps,  ii.  and  iv.  2  Chap.  iv.  17. 


no  The  Sabbath   Question. 

Christian  scholars  all  agree,  it  was  not  through 
six  brief  days,  but  through  six  mighty  epochs 
of  innumerable  years,  that  this  work  of  cre- 
ation was  perfected ;  if,  through  ages  upon 
ages,  and  with  catastrophe  after  catastrophe, 
and  by  mighty  agencies  of  fire  and  frost  and 
flood,  God  wrought  the  finished  order  of  his 
perfect  universe,  until  at  last  it  was  made  ready 
for  the  man  created  in  his  image,  —  if  this  is 
true,  then  we  should  fitly  and  naturally  expect 
the  seventh  day  to  be  a  long,  vast  epoch  like 
the  others. 

Concerning  the  six  ages  of  creation,  there  is 
not  any  longer  room  for  doubt.  There  was  a 
time  —  not  so  very  long  ago  —  when  good  men 
imagined,  that,  unless  they  contended  for  the 
literal  exactness  of  this  narrative  in  Genesis, 
they  were  surrendering  the  very  fortress  of  re- 
vealed religion,  and  undermining  the  very  foun- 
dation of  the  truth.  And  so  they  did  contend 
for  literal  days,  and  literal  mornings  and  literal 
evenings  to  each  one,  and  each  one  twenty- 
four  literal  hours  in  length,  no  more,  no  less  ; 
contended  vehemently  as  for  essential  truth  ; 
contended  in  the  face  of  science ;  contended  in 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  1 1 1 

contempt  of  all  the  testimony  which  God  had 
written  in  the  book  of  nature ;  contended  even 
in  conflict  with  the  coherent  story  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis  itself.  But  this  is  no  longer  thought 
necessary ;  nor  is  it  any  longer  deemed  heresy, 
if  we  interpret  the  scriptural  record  by  the 
commentary  of  the  records  in  the  rocks.  And 
the  result  of  this  interpretation  is,  that  distinct 
and  successive  periods  in  the  process  of  crea- 
tion, occurring  in  the  general  order  indicated 
in  scripture,  are  indeed  discovered  in  geologi- 
cal history ;  but,  instead  of  being  periods  of 
twenty-four  hours,  they  must  have  been  pe- 
riods of  prolonged  and  almost  incalculable 
duration.  Each  one  was  preceded  by  a  night 
of  darkness,  convulsion,  catastrophe  ; '  and,  when 

1  The  most  recent  statement  of  scholarly  interpretation  on  this 
point  may  be  found  in  Lange's  Commentary  on  Genesis,  issued  in 
the  American  edition  since  this  sermon  was  preached.  It  is  quoted 
because  it  is  the  most  recent,  and  because  it  gives  with  sufficient 
completeness  the  theory  of  the  creative  "evenings." 

"  We  are  not  to  conceive  of  the  evening  and  morning  of  the  single 
creative  days  as  merely  symbolic  intervals  of  the  day  of  God.  Ac- 
cording to  the  analogy  of  the  first  day,  the  evening  is  the  time  of  a 
peculiar  chaotic  fermentation  of  things  ;  while  the  morning  is  the  time 
of  that  new,  fair,  solemn  world-building  that  corresponds  to  it.  With 
each  evening  there  is  also  indicated  a  new  birth-travail  of   things,  a 


1 1 2  The  Sabbath    Question. 

one  night  ended,  a  new  order  of  creation  was 
produced,  —  and  then  another  night  of  fire  or 
cataclysm  came,  and  then  another  day ;  and  so 
on  from  stage  to  stage,  until  at  last,  into  the 
world  which  had  been  fitted  up,  by  these  suc- 
cessive acts,  for  human  habitation  and  dis- 
cipline, the  man,  made  in  the  image  of  God, 
was  introduced.  And  the  evening  of  convul- 
sion and  darkness,  and  the  morning  of  new  cre- 
ative forms  and  phases,  made  up  each  one  of 
these  immense  primeval  days.  Only,  whereas 
of  the  first  and  second,  and  of  all  the  six,  there 
is  recorded  a  beginning  and  an  end,  there  is 
no  end  recorded  of  the  seventh.  What  if  it  be 
not  ended  yet  ?  What  if  the  Sabbath  which 
began  when  the  creative  work  was  finished, 
has  continued  and  is  still  continuing,  and  shall 
still  continue  while  the  created  universe  en- 
new  earth  revolution,  which  elevates  the  old  formation  that  went 
before  it, —a  seeming  darkening,  a  seeming  sunset,  or  going  down 
of  the  world.  .  .  .  With  each  morning,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  a 
new,  a  higher,  a  fairer,  and  a  richer  state  of  the  world.  In  this  way 
do  the  evening  and  morning  in  the  creative  periods  have  the  highest 
significance  for  an  agreement  of  the  sacred  geology  with  the  results 
of  the  scientific  geology."  —  Lange,  Genesis,  American  edition, 
p.  167. 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  1 1 3 

dures !  Each  one  of  those  creation  days  was 
ages  long :  is  the  Sabbath  day  any  shorter  ? 
Has  it  ever  been  broken  in  upon  by  any  new 
creative  act  ?  Is  not  this  age  of  human  his- 
tory, of  human  discipline,  of  human  sanctifica- 
tion,  God's  Sabbath  age  ?  Is  it  not  this  which 
he  has  blessed  and  sanctified  ? 

I  know  that  it  is  not  wise  nor  safe  to  specu- 
late concerning  questions  about  which  we  know 
so  little, — but  this  inquiry  is  not  one  of  simply 
speculative  interest.  There  is  a  parallel  drawn 
in  scripture  between  God's  Sabbath  and  man's 
Sabbath,  between  God's  rest  and  man's  rest. 
Indeed,  the  one  is  made  the  ground  of  the  other. 
And  they  are  the  same  in  kind.  Sabbath  is 
rest.  When  we  know  wherein  the  rest  of  God 
consists,  we  may  know  wherein  our  rest  is  to 
consist.  When  we  discover  what  God's  Sab- 
bath is,  we  may  discover  what  our  own  Sabbath 
is,  or  what  it  ought  to  be.  And  I  insist,  there- 
fore, that  the  study  which  we  are  pursuing  this 
morning  is  not  fanciful  or  unreasonable. 

Assuming,  then,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
what  it  is  the  duty  of  those  who  doubt  it  to 
disprove,  that  the  seventh  day  which  God  has 


ii4  The  Sabbath   Question. 

blessed  and  sanctified  is  even  now  continuing, 
let  us  reverently  ask  how  he  is  spending  it.  I 
speak  as  if  it  were  a  mere  assumption  for  the 
sake  of  argument ;  although,  if  so,  it  is  an  as- 
sumption which  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  also  makes,  when  he  speaks  of  the 
rest  into  which  God  has  entered  as  if  still  con- 
tinuing, and  as  being  the  very  same  into  which 
a  promise  is  left  us  of  entering  also.  So  that 
the  case  stands  thus  :  God  began  to  rest ;  God 
never  has  ceased  to  rest ;  God  even  speaks  of 
his  own  rest  as  a  continuous  and  permanent 
state,  in  which  men  may  share.  "  My  rest ;  my 
rest ! "  The  words  are  solemnly  quoted  over 
and  over  again  by  the  writer  of  that  Epistle,  as 
full  of  most  profound  and  awful  meaning.  The 
rest  of  God,  the  Sabbath  of  God ;  not  many 
rests,  but  one  rest ;  not  many  Sabbaths,  but 
one  Sabbath ;  not  a  rest  which  comes  and  goes, 
but  a  rest  which  remains, —  perpetual,  eternal, 
—  this  is  the  true  Sabbath.  It  is  God's  Sab- 
bath, and  it  is  our  Sabbath  also  if  we  do  not 
refuse  it.  What  is  it,  then  ?  How  does  God 
spend  it  ?     Wherein  does  it  consist  ? 

Not,  at    any   rate,  in    idleness    or  inactivity. 


The  Sabbath  of  uod.  1 1 5 

We  have  Christ's  own  word  for  that.  There 
has  been  such  a  conception  of  God  as  that, 
having  made  the  world  and  started  it  in  motion, 
he  lets  it  spin  forever,  unheeded  and  unsus- 
tained  except  by  some  inherent  energy  of  its 
own ;  but  this  is  not  the  Christian  conception 
of  God.  To  loll  upon  Olympus,  to  look  down 
in  idle  unconcern  upon  the  changing  scenes  of 
earth,  to  exist  in  selfish  sloth  from  age  to  age, 
—  this  was  a  heathen  view  of  God,  and  a  most 
gross  and  false  conception  of  divine  blessed- 
ness. The  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  one  God,  the  true  God,  the  living 
God,  is  no  such  being  as  that.  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work,"  said  our  Lord 
in  that  sublime  discourse  of  his  concerning  the 
Sabbath.1  "You  accuse  me,"  says  he  to  the 
Jews,  "you  accuse  me  of  working  on  the  Sab- 
bath day ;  so  I  do  ;  so  does  my  Father :  work 
is  not  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath  ;  idleness  is 
not  an  observance  of  it :  my  Father  is  at  rest, 
but  he  is  not  idle.  My  Father  worketh  hith- 
erto, and  I  work." 

These  are  divine  words.     They  are  too  won- 

1  John  v.  17. 


n6  The  Sabbath   Question. 

derful  for  human  philosophies ;  they  are  high, 
we  could  not  attain  unto  them  with  our  unaided 
imaginations.  Perfectly  to  grasp  the  paradox 
of  a  God  forever  busy,  yet  at  rest  forever,  —  of 
a  God  in  infinite  repose,  and  yet  in  infinite  activ- 
ity, —  only  he  who  spake  as  never  man  spake 
was  able.  And  yet  the  paradox  is  true :  we 
feel  the  truth  of  it,  and  do  homage  to  it,  even 
if  we  cannot  explain  it.  For  if  God  were  in- 
deed idle  (as  a  German  writer  has  beautifully 
said),  no  sun  would  shine,  no  flowers  would 
bloom,  all  creation  would  languish,  all  the  uni- 
verse would  dissolve.  He  is  at  rest,  and  yet 
he  makes  the  outgoing  of  every  morning  and 
every  evening  to  rejoice;  every  singing-bird 
pipes  because  he  gladdens  it ;  every  sparrow 
flies  because  he  bears  it  up ;  every  lily  grows 
because  he  nurtures  it ;  every  hair  of  every 
humblest  head  is  numbered  by  his  knowledge. 
He  is  at  rest,  and  yet  the  work  of  his  preserv- 
ing care  continues.  He  creates  no  longer ;  but 
he  sustains,  preserves,  perpetuates  his  work. 

But  much  more  than  this.  God  enters  now 
upon  a  higher  work ;  not  a  work  of  force,  but  a 
work  of  love.     He  has  to  save  the  man  whom 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  1 1 7 

he  has  made.  He  has  to  save  and  sanctify 
him  ;  and  through  the  long  ages  of  his  Sabbath 
he  has  patiently  been  working  out,  and  still  is 
patiently  working  out,  the  spiritual  perfectness 
of  man.  Herein,  indeed,  we  find  his  Sabbath 
work.  In  six  days  he  made  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  and  all  the  host  of  them,  and  fitted 
up  man's  dwelling-place,  and  put  man  in  it. 
On  the  seventh  he  is  making  all  things  over, 
making  all  things  new.  On  the  sixth  day  he 
made  man,  on  the  seventh  he  is  making  him  a 
new  creature ;  on  the  sixth  day  he  made  man 
good,  on  the  seventh  he  is  making  him  holy  ; 
on  the  sixth  day  that  which  is  natural,  on  the 
seventh  day  that  which  is  spiritual. 

And  so  the  rest  of  God  is  seen  to  be  the 
rising  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  work,  a  ceasing 
from  the  work  of  making  to  the  nobler  employ- 
ment of  saving,  a  passing  from  his  miracles  of 
power  to  his  sublimer  miracles  of  grace  !  God 
made  the  seventh  day  holy,  —  blessed  it  and 
sanctified  it.  When  the  scripture  says  he 
sanctified  it,  it  does  not  merely  mean  that  he 
called  it  holy,  but  that  he  made  it  holy.  Hith- 
erto in  God's  creation  there  had  been  no  chance 


1 1 8  The  Sabbath   Question. 

for  holiness.  Matter  cannot  be  holy :  God 
could  see  the  material  world,  that  it  was  good  ; 
but  he  could  not  see  that  it  was  holy :  there  is 
no  moral  quality  at  all  in  it.  He  saw  the  light, 
that  it  was  good,  —  but  not  that  it  was  holy ;  so 
the  firmament  was  good,  and  the  earth,  and 
the  waters,  and  the  vegetable  world,  and  the 
changeful  orbs  of  heaven,  and  the  creeping 
things  of  water,  and  flying  fowls  of  air,  and 
mighty  beasts  of  earth,  —  all  these  were  good  ; 
and  man  himself,  as  first  of  all  the  animal 
world,  as  sum  and  chief  of  these  created  things, 
was  good,  but  even  he,  as  yet,  not  holy.  The 
innocence  in  which  man  was  made  was  a  differ- 
ent thing  from  holiness.  Holiness  cannot  be 
created.  It  is  not  the  result  of  force.  It  is 
the  work  of  liberty.  Power  can  create.  But 
only  love  can  sanctify.  The  earth  and  the 
heavens  and  all  the  host  of  them  could  be 
spoken  into  being  by  the  sovereign  will  of  God, 
and  fashioned  through  the  silent  ages  by  his 
hands.  And  man,  the  summit  of  creation, 
could  be  formed,  a  living  soul,  with  powers  like 
God's  own  powers,  with  liberty  like  God's. 
But   now,  if   the  problem  is  to  make  the  man 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  1 1 9 

employ  his  liberty  for  good  and  not  for  evil,  use 
his  powers  for  right  and  not  for  wrong,  if,  in  a 
word,  the  work  is  to  make  this  free  man  a  holy 
man,  —  this  is  a  work,  not  for  creative  force, 
but  for  renewing  love  ;  not  for  might  like  that 
which  heaved  the  heavens  above  the  spacious 
earth  ;  not  for  power  like  that  which  fixed  the 
bounds  of  earth  and  seas,  but  for  the  still, 
strong  Spirit  of  the  living,  loving  God. 

Through  six  mighty  ages,  then,  in  slow  suc- 
cession, was  creation  perfected ;  and  it  was  very 
good.  At  the  head  of  it,  made  lord  over  it, 
with  dominion  over  all  the  works  of  the  Crea- 
tor's hands,  stood  man,  formed  in  God's  image, 
—  free  with  the  dangerous  liberty  to  choose 
right  or  to  choose  wrong, — free  in  the  bal- 
anced equipoise  of  his  imperial  will.  What  the 
Creator's  hand  can  do  for  him  is  done.  He  is 
made  free  to  act,  able  to  act.  If  he  is  forced 
to  act  either  in  one  way  or  in  the  other,  com- 
pelled to  choose  either  for  right  or  for  wrong, 
his  freedom  is  destroyed,  and  his  holiness  is 
impossible.  Holiness  upon  compulsion  is  not 
holiness.  Virtue  produced  by  force  is  not  vir- 
tue at  all.     Right  action  which  is  the  result  of 


120  The  Sabbath   Question. 

power  has  not  the  blessedness  which  God 
designs  for  man.  There  is  no  longer  room  for 
the  creative  hand  upon  man.  God  has  made 
him,  but  now  himself  must  act.  The  six  days' 
work  in  his  behalf  is  finished.  The  seventh  is 
begun.  In  the  work  of  creation  God  has  noth- 
ing more  to  do  :  scripture  and  science  are  at 
one  on  this  point.  This  seventh  age  of  human 
history  is  consecrated  to  a  nobler  work :  God 
has  blessed  it  and  sanctified  it.  He  has  de- 
voted it  to  making  holy  the  man  whom  he  made 
free. 

This  is  the  way  in  which  God  spends  his 
Sabbath.  He  creates  no  longer.  But  he  sanc- 
tifies and  saves.  And  so  it  is  not  a  mere  fancy 
if  we  discover  how,  as  the  six  days  that  pre- 
ceded it  began,  each  one  with  evening,  even  with 
the  darkness  of  convulsion  and  catastrophe  and 
almost  of  chaos  come  again,  —  so  this  seventh 
day  began  with  evening,  even  with  the  night  of 
sin.  The  man  made  free  to  act,  chose  to  act 
wrong.  The  image  of  his  Maker  was  defaced 
and  marred.  The  whole  creation  shared  the 
shock  and  damage  of  that  evil  choice.  Dark- 
ness came  upon  the  earth, — the  darkness  of  a 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  121 

dreadful  ruin, — and  gross  darkness  on  the  peo- 
ple, even  the  moral  darkness  of  a  deadly  sin. 
The  whole  creation  groaned  and  travailed  in 
the  pain  and  bondage  which  that  bad  choice 
wrought.  The  night  of  sin  began  this  Sabbath 
day. 

But  presently  the  day-star  rose,  the  day-star 
from  on  high  that  visited  us,  —  the  bright  and 
morning  star,  the  Sun  of  righteousness.  The 
dawn  began  in  Eden  with  the  promise  to  the 
man  who  sinned.  It  brightened  till  the  Sun 
arose  at  Bethlehem.  It  shineth  more  and  more 
unto  the  perfect  day.  It  is  the  light  of  the 
glory  of  God  shining  in  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord. 
The  work  of  this,  the  last,  the  Sabbath  day,  is 
to  bless  and  make  holy  what  the  six  days  had 
created.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning 
are  the  seventh  day. 

But  no  night  shall  follow  this.  This  sun 
which  has  arisen  never  shall  go  down.  The 
gates  of  this  eternal  Sabbath  shall  not  be  shut 
at  all  by  day,  for  there  shall  be  no  night  there. 
And  the  rest  whereinto  God  has  entered,  and 
whence  his  influence  of  love  goes  forth  to  sanc- 
tify and  save   the  world, — the  rest  whereinto 


122  The  Sabbath   Question. 

Christ  has  entered,  and  whence  his  loving 
presence  issues  with  perpetual  power  to  com- 
fort and  to  help,  —  the  rest  into  which  we  are 
entering  by  his  grace  and  through  his  Spirit,  — 
this  rest  remaineth,  though  the  earth  and 
heaven  should  pass  away.  This  is  the  Sabbath. 
And  of  this  all  other  days  are  shadowy  and 
imperfect  types.     They  vanish.     This  endures. 

So  we  find  in  the  Apocalypse  the  supplement 
of  Genesis.  And  if  any  man  has  ever  won- 
dered why  no  more  is  said  in  the  scriptures 
concerning  the  seventh  day,  I  tell  him  that 
the  whole  Bible  is  the  history  of  the  seventh 
day.  To  it  the  six  days  were  preliminary. 
Beside  the  splendor  of  its  saving  grace,  the 
skill  and  power  of  those  creative  eras  dwindle. 
When  God  ceased  from  forming  worlds,  and 
fashioning  their  myriad  inhabitants,  it  was  to 
sanctify  and  bless.  His  highest  rest  is  holi- 
ness ;  and  holiness  with  him  is  not  an  idle 
and  inactive  being  good,  but  a  perpetual  and 
busy  and  self-sacrificing  doing  good  as  well. 

And,  if  we  are  to  enter  into  his  rest,  it  must 
be  by  entering  into  his  beneficence,  and  by 
abiding  in  his    holiness.     Does  it  seem  to  us, 


The  Sabbath  of  God.  123 

as  well  it  may,  that  of  all  words  in  human 
speech  there  is  no  sweeter  word  than  this 
word,  rest  ?  Well,  there  is  left  to  us  a  prom- 
ise of  entering  into  rest.  Does  it  seem  to  us 
that  all  our  human  rest  is  transient,  —  for  a 
season  only,  —  ends  presently  in  new  and 
harder  labors,  —  in  renewed  fatigue  ?  Well, 
then,  there  is  left  to  us  a  promise  of  entering 
into  God's  rest.  He  is  never  weary.  He  is 
never  idle.  We,  too,  shall  be  never  weary. 
We,  too,  shall  be  never  idle.  We  shall  rest 
from  sin.  We  shall  rest  in  holiness.  We 
shall  rest  in  God.  There,  and  only  there,  the 
wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  the  weary  are 
at  rest. 

Let  us  therefore  fear,  brethren,  lest,  a  prom- 
ise being  left  us  of  entering  into  his  rest,  any 
of  us  should  seem  to  come  short  of  it. 


124  The  Sabbath   Question, 


II. 

THE  PURPOSE   OF   THE  JEWISH 
SABBATH. 

"  Ifceen  tfje  Sabbatfj  oag  to  sanctifg  it,  as  tfje  ILorD  tfjg  Sod 
fjatfj  commanDcD  tfjee.  Six  Dags  tfjou  sfjalt  labor,  ano  do  all 
tfjs  ^oxk:  ^ut  ^c  scbmtfj  Dag  is  tfje  Sabbatfj  of  tfje  3LorD  tfjg 
(SoD :  in  it  tfjou  sfjalt  not  do  ang  foorfc,  tfjou,  nor  tfjg  son,  nor 
tfjg  Daughter,  nor  tfjg  manscroant,  nor  tljg  maiDscrbant,  nor 
tfjinc  ox,  nor  tfjine  ass,  nor  ang  of  tfjg  cattle,  nor  tfjg  stranger 
tfjat  is  mitfjin  tfjg  gates ;  tfjat  tfjg  manscrbant  anD  tfjg  maiD* 
serbant  mag  rest  as  foell  as  tfjou.  <3nD  renumber  tfjat  tfjou 
bast  a  serbant  in  tfje  lanD  of  SEggpt,  anD  tfjat  tfje  iloro  tfjg  (Sod 
brougfjt  tfjee  out  tfjence  tfjrougfj  a  migfjtg  fjano  anD  bg  astretcfjeD 
out  arm :  therefore  tfje  ILorD  tfjg  (KoD  commanDcD  tfjee  to  keen 
tfje  Sabbatfj  Dag."  —  Deut.  v.  12-15. 

IN  the  last  sermon,  we  studied  that  sublime 
passage  in  the  Book  of  Genesis  which  re- 
cords the  completion  of  God's  creative  work  and 
the  beginning  of  his  rest.  I  tried  to  show  that 
the  divine  rest  from  creation  has  continued 
ever  since,  and  still  continues  ;  that  the  Sab- 
bath of  the  Lord  our  God  not  only  cometh,  but 
now  is.     I  tried  to  show  also  (so  far  as  I  might 


The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    125 

reverently  touch  upon  such  mysteries)  wherein 
the  rest  of  God  consists,  and  how  he  is  spend- 
ing this  long  Sabbath  day  of  his  ;  that  rest,  to 
him,  is  not  idleness  nor  inactivity,  but  rather  a 
rising  from  the  exercise  of  might  and  power  to 
the  still,  strong  exercise  of  his  loving  and  eter- 
nal Spirit  ;  and  that  he  is  spending  his  Sabbath 
in  the  sanctifying  of  the  world,  which,  through 
six  immemorial  ages,  he  had  been  creating. 
And  I  reminded  you  of  the  gracious  promise 
which  is  left  to  us,  of  entering  into  God's  own 
rest ;  and  tried  to  show  how  more  than  ever 
sweet  and  beautiful  that  promise  sounds,  when 
we  discover  that  it  is  a  rest  of  holiness,  the 
rest  of  being  good  and  doing  good,  the  rest 
of  tireless  love. 

This,  then,  the  rest  of  God,  is  the  true  rest : 
this,  the  Sabbath  of  God,  is  the  true  Sab- 
bath. We  use  words  sometimes  in  a  lower, 
sometimes  in  a  higher,  sense :  we  are  obliged 
to  use  them  so,  partly  because  of  the  poverty 
of  human  speech,  which  has  not  words  enough 
for  every  thing,  and  so  compels  some  to  do 
double  duty  ;  but  more  because  of  the  relation 
of  things  seen  to  things  unseen,  and  the  cor- 


126  The  Sabbath   Question. 

respondence  between  them.  For  example,  we 
have  only  one  word,  "life,"  by  which  to  desig- 
nate the  life  of  the  body  and  the  life  of  the 
soul  :  and  we  are  obliged  constantly  to  remind 
ourselves,  that,  when  we  use  the  word  in  its 
lower  signification,  we  have  not  exhausted  its 
meaning  ;  that  (as  a  favorite  hymn-writer  has 
expressed  the  thought),  — 

" '  Tis  not  the  whole  of  life  to  live, 
Nor  all  of  death  to  die  ;  " 

that  the  limited,  temporal  meaning  of  the  word 
is  but  a  shadow  of  its  spiritual  meaning.  I 
know  that  the  lower  meaning  is  constantly 
absorbing  our  attention  as  if  it  were  all.  But 
it  is  not  all.  The  true  life,  the  real  death,  are 
of  the  soul,  unseen,  eternal. 

So  with  this  word  "rest."  We  know  what 
it  means  when  we  speak  of  bodily  rest,  of 
taking  rest  in  sleep,  of  days  of  temporal  rest. 
We  know,  that,  even  in  this  usage  of  the  word, 
its  meaning  is  very  sweet  and  beautiful  ;  that 
when  we  are  worn  out  with  weary  labor,  with 
work  of  toiling  hands  and  busy  feet  and  ach- 
ing head,  the  comfort  of  repose  is  very  great, 


The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    127 

nay,  very  necessary  ;  that  without  it  the  unre- 
freshed  body  must  become  the  victim  of  dis- 
ease, the  prey  of  death.  We  know  that  even 
every  toiling  beast  must  rest,  or  die.  We 
know,  by  an  experience  which  defines  it  better 
than  all  verbal  definitions  can,  what  rest  is,  and 
how  comforting,  how  much  to  be  desired,  how 
not  to  be  dispensed  with,  it  is  to  every  living 
creature. 

But  there  is  a  higher  rest,  a  nobler  rest,  a 
truer  rest,  than  what  is  physical  ;  just  as  there 
is  a  higher  life,  a  nobler  life,  a  truer  life,  than 
what  is  physical.  As  comforting  and  pleasant 
to  the  spirit  as  the  repose  of  evening  to  the 
body,  as  much  more  blessed  and  complete  and 
enduring  as  eternity  is  more  perfect  than  time, 
is  this  true  rest.  It  is  that  whereof  the  Lord 
Jesus  spoke  in  words  of  gracious  promise  when 
he  said,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  It 
is  that  into  which  God  has  entered,  and  in 
which  he  now  abides,  his  works  being  finished 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  It  is  that 
into  which  a  promise  is  left  us  of  entering  also. 

But  of   this  rest  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive. 


128  The  Sabbath   Question. 

Eye  hath  not  seen  it.  We  have  seen  the  body 
locked  in  the  embrace  of  sleep,  and  watched 
its  peaceful  breathing  when  the  labors  of  the 
day  are  over.  But  this  spiritual  rest  is  some- 
thing which  cannot  be  seen  by  mortal  eyes. 
For  the  tired  body,  too,  there  are  restful  sounds 
that  soothe  the  drowsy  senses ;  there  are  re- 
freshment and  repose  in  pleasant  music ;  or 
when  we  lie  where  branches  sway  and  rustle 
over  us,  and  the  birds  sing  in  them,  there  is 
rest  in  the  very  sounds  which  our  ears  hear. 
But  this  spiritual  rest  of  which  I  speak,  makes 
no  such  appeal  to  sense.  Ear  hath  not  heard 
it,  neither  has  the  imagination  conceived  it. 
It  can  only  be  known  by  being  felt  and  enjoyed. 
Just  as  description  of  light  is  impossible  to  one 
born  blind,  so  no  definition,  no  description,  no 
representation,  of  this  spiritual  rest  is  adequate 
for  an  unrestful  soul.  God  must  reveal  it  to 
us  by  his  Spirit,  if  we  are  to  know  what  it  is. 
He  must  make  us  partakers  of  it.  We  must 
enter  into  it. 

And  this  is  what  God  is  all  the  while  invit- 
ing us  to  do,  attracting  us,  impelling  us  to  do ; 
this  is  what  he  yearns  to  have  us  do ;  it  is  for 


The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    129 

this  that  all  his  government  is  exercised,  that 
all  his  providence  is  arranged,  that  all  his  Spirit 
strives.  And  the  way  in  which  he  leads  us  to 
this  spiritual  rest,  as  to  all  spiritual  things,  is 
through  our  natural  experiences.  First,  that 
which  is  natural  ;  then  that  which  is  spiritual. 
The  lower  first,  and  afterward  the  higher.  That 
is  the  law.  From  things  that  are  seen  to  things 
that  are  unseen.     That  is  the  order. 

Remembering  this,  we  begin  to  see  the  rea- 
son for  the  commandment  which  God  gave  the 
Hebrew  people  through  his  servant  Moses,  and 
which  I  have  taken  for  a  text.  Here  was  a 
rude,  self-willed,  headstrong  people,  to  be  made 
quiet,  religious,  trustful,  holy.  This  was  the 
problem  :  a  people  to  be  trained  and  educated 
to  a  religious  exaltation  which  should  make 
them  fit  to  be  the  religious  teachers  of  the 
world  ;  a  race  of  more  or  less  degraded  slaves 
to  be  familiarized  with  spiritual  truth,  and  puri- 
fied by  it.  And  this  was  the  way  the  problem 
was  solved  :  by  a  system  of  types  and  prophe- 
cies and  shadows.  Earth  was  made  to  them 
the  hint  of  heaven.  Nature  was  to  lead  them 
to   the    God    of   nature.     Events    of   time   and 


130  The  Sabbath   Question. 

place  were  to  suggest  to  them  realities  beyond 
time  and  superior  to  place.  Things  of  sense 
were  to  be  the  media  of  things  of  spirit.  The 
Jewish  law  cannot  be  understood,  nor  the  worth 
and  significance  of  it  measured,  unless  this  is 
constantly  borne  in  mind. 

For  example,  it  was  the  design  of  the  in- 
spired leader  of  the  Hebrew  people,  the  great 
lawgiver  and  soldier  who  was  God's  instrument 
in  making  them  a  nation,  —  it  was  his  design, 
or,  let  us  rather  say,  it  was  God's  design 
through  him,  to  teach  this  people  the  great 
truth  on  which  we  have  been  meditating.  It 
was  no  easy  task.  To  make  things  unseen 
real  and  vivid  ;  to  lift  their  minds  up  to  the 
truth  of  an  immortal  rest  of  peaceful  holiness, 
when  a  host  of  busy  cares,  of  snaring  tempta- 
tions, of  hurtful  passions,  of  degrading  lusts, 
were  dragging  them  downward,  —  this  was  a 
very  difficult  thing  indeed.  Persistent,  patient, 
skilful  schooling  was  necessary,  as  it  is  with 
an  ignorant  and  perverse  child.  To  use  words 
in  a  lower  sense  at  first,  and  gradually  to  lift 
them  to  their  higher  sense  ;  to  make  use  of 
the  "  illusiveness  of  life  "  (as  Robertson  beau- 


The  Pwpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    1 3  1 

tif ully  calls  it  *),  and  to  show  what  infinite 
stretch  there  is  to  truth,  —  how  it  draws  out  like 
an  endless  telescope  ;  or  how  (to  use  another 
figure)  it  is  a  clew  which,  if  you  hold  one  end 
of  it,  you  may  follow  out  eternally,  —  this  was 
the  way,  the  only  way,  to  do  the  work. 

So  the  law  of  association  was  called  in  to 
teach  the  people.  And  as  when  men  build  a 
monument  to  mark  some  famous  spot,  or  to 
commemorate  some  great  achievement,  or  to 
perpetuate  the  memory  of  some  illustrious  life, 
that  when  the  coming  generations  ask,  "  What 
is  this  monument  ?  "  the  story  of  the  place,  or 
of  the  deed,  or  of  the  life,  being  associated 
with  this  material  thing,  this  block  of  granite 
or  of  marble  that  can  be  touched  and  seen, 
may  live,  and  not  die  :  so  Moses  erected  for 
this  people  a  monumental  day,  that  when,  in 
the  uniform  succession  of  the  days,  it  came 
around,  and  men  should  ask,  "  What  is  this 
day  ? "  the  higher  truth  attached  to  it  should 
be  permanent  and  powerful. 

What,  then,  was  this  day  ?     Moses  called  it 

1  Sermons  by  the  late  Rev.  F.  W.  Robertson.  Vol.  iii.  Ser- 
mon vi. 


132  The  Sabbat  J  1   Question. 

Sabbath,  — which  means  rest.  And  so  it  was  a 
Sabbath  ;  not  the  real  Sabbath,  but  a  Sabbath, 
in  some  inferior  meaning  of  the  word.  Not  the 
real  Sabbath,  I  say,  for  that,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  constant  and  above  time  ;  not  the  perfect 
rest, — for  that  is  uniform,  perpetual,  spiritual, 
—  but,  in  some  limited  and  lower  meaning  of 
the  word,  a  rest ;  a  Sabbath  shadowy,  imper- 
fect, transient,  that  should  yet,  by  its  very 
imperfectness,  suggest  a  real,  enduring,  perfect 
one.  The  idea  of  rest,  the  name  of  rest,  was 
fastened  on,  declared  to  be  sacred,  emphasized 
with  all  the  sanctions  of  religion.  That  of  it- 
self was  a  great  thing.  The  result  must  be, 
that,  after  a  while  they  would  discover  that  no 
twenty-four  hours'  rest  of  body,  merely,  could 
exhaust  the  meaning  of  that  sacred  word,  or 
meet  the  full  requirements  of  that  high  idea. 

But  this  was  not  all.  The  mysterious  fact 
on  which  we  pondered  a  week  ago  was  linked 
inseparably  to  this  day.  It  spoke  of  God's  rest. 
The  Hebrew  people  had  a  most  imperfect  no- 
tion, probably  a  gross,  and  often  a  wrong,  no- 
tion of  what  God's  rest  is.  But  it  was  a  great 
thing  that  the  word    could    be  connected  any- 


77ie  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    133 

how  with  God.  Already  the  idea  of  rest  be- 
comes immensely  dignified  and  enlarged,  by  the 
mere  fact  that  it  belongs  in  any  sense,  however 
feebly  understood,  to  him.  And  thus  enlarged 
and  dignified,  it  must  sooner  or  later  lift  the 
people  who  receive  it  up  above  the  world  of 
sense,  into  the  world  of  spirit. 

But  this  was  not  all.  This  Jewish  Sabbath 
had  another  association  connected  with  it. 
When  men  asked,  "  What  does  this  day 
mean?"  and  "Why  was  it  ordained?"  one 
answer  would  be  the  one  on  which  we  have 
just  been  meditating,  "  Because  God  rested." 
That  is  the  reason  given  in  the  Book  of  Exo- 
dus. That  was,  probably  enough,  the  religious 
truth  which  Abraham  had  handed  down  along 
the  generations  to  the  lawgiver  Moses.  But 
it  is  not  probable  that  this  fact  was  commemo- 
rated by  what  I  have  called  a  monumental  day, 
until  the  exodus  from  Egypt.  Probably  Abra- 
ham knew  that  God  had  created,  and  that  God 
had  rested.  But  probably  Abraham  did  not 
celebrate  God's  rest  by  a  weekly  Sabbath. 
There  is  only  a  very  slender  and  unsatisfac- 
tory sum    of   evidence,  only  the  very  thinnest 


134  The  Sabbath    Question. 

film  of  proof,  to  show  that  any  weekly  Sabbath 
was  observed  before  the  time  of  Moses.1  But 
when,  after  the  long  years  of  slavery  in  Egypt, 
this  oppressed  and  tired  race  of  bondmen  were 
emancipated  ;  when  the  centuries  of  degrading 
toil  were  ended,  and  the  tribes  went  forth,  to 
look  no  more  upon  the  hateful  brick-yards 
where  they  and  their  fathers  before  them  had 
worn  out  weary  lives,  and  to  hear  no  more 
the  harsh  voices  of  their  cruel  taskmasters  ; 
when,  with  new-formed  hopes  stirring  within 
them,  and  the  dawning  consciousness  of  na- 
tionality dignifying  them,  they  were  marching 
toward  a  land  which  they  might  hope  to  call 
their  own,  a  goodly  land,  a  land  of  hills  and 
valleys,  a  land  of  milk  and  honey,  —  then  there 
was  ordained  this  Sabbath  day,  which  should 
always  speak  to  them  and  to  the   generations 

1  Probably  the  best  summary  of  the  argument  on  this  point  is  to 
be  found  in  Hessey's  Bampton  Lectures  (1S60),  to  which  volume,  and 
to  the  authorities  copiously  quoted  therein,  it  is  sufficient  to  refer 
any  readers  who  may  desire  to  inform  themselves  concerning  it. 
Quotations  are  given  in  still  greater  detail  (especially  from  theologians 
since  the  Reformation)  in  Cox's  Literature  on  the  Sabbath  Question, 
—  a  book  of  marvellous  learning  and  research.  But  the  narration 
in  this  sixteenth  chapter  of  Exodus  speaks  for  itself  so  clearly  that 
it  scarcely  needs  much  comment. 


The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    135 

after  them,  of  slavery  and  rest  from  slavery,  of 
toil  and  rest  from  toil,  of  degradation  and  de- 
liverance from  degradation,  of  sorrow  changed 
to  joy,  of  trouble  ending  in  exceeding  blessed- 
ness. 

Thus  it  was,  and  then  it  was,  that  this  seventh- 
day  Sabbath  was  instituted.  It  was  in  the 
wilderness.  I  read  the  story  of  it  in  the  chap- 
ter from  the  Book  of  Exodus  this  morning 
(chap.  xvi.).  The  people  had  come  out  of 
Egypt  exultant  and  rejoicing  that  their  toil  was 
over ;  there  was  no  more  work  for  them  thence- 
forth, they  thought ;  they  were  free  at  last  from 
the  weary  servitude  of  centuries.  It  is  easy  to 
conceive  the  gratulation  which  inspired  them  as 
they  thought  of  this ;  it  is  easy  to  conceive 
what  present  meaning  this  word  "  rest "  would 
have  for  them,  and  how  it  would  seem  of  all 
words  the  sweetest.  But  they  had  not  been 
long  started  on  their  journey  before  they  found 
that  they  were  very  far  from  being  yet  at  rest. 
As  soon  as  they  were  fairly  in  the  wilderness, 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  their  deliverance  was 
over,  and  the  hardships  of  the  journey  through 
the  desert  began  to  make  themselves  felt,  they 


136  The  Sabbath    Question. 

began  to  grumble  and  despond,  and  to  say  that 
this  was  worse  than  Egypt,  and  to  wish  that 
they  were  back  again.  They  had  not  found 
the  rest  they  thought  they  had.  Want  and 
hunger  and  toilsome  journeying  had  come  upon 
them  instead.  And  they  murmured  against 
their  leaders. 

Something  had  to  be  done  now,  to  meet  the 
exigency,  and  to  teach  this  fickle,  ignorant, 
childish  people  patience  and  faith.  So  God 
sent  the  quails  and  the  manna,  and  they  were 
fed ;  but  with  this  provision  of  necessary  food 
came  also,  by  inspired  wisdom,  the  ordinance 
of  the  Sabbath  day.  When  the  sixth  day  came, 
they  were  to  gather  food  for  two  days,  and  to 
rest  upon  the  seventh.  On  the  seventh  day,  if 
they  went  out  to  look  for  manna,  as  some  dis- 
orderly persons  did,  they  could  not  find  it, 
because  there  was  none  to  find.  This  seventh 
day  was  to  speak  to  them  of  rest,  was  to  be  a 
constant  prophecy  of  rest,  to  cheer  their  dis- 
contented spirits,  to  encourage  their  distrustful 
hearts.  It  was  to-  say  to  them,  so  often  as  it 
came,  "The  promise  which  was  given  to  you  of 
entering  into  rest  shall  not  be  unfulfilled.     A 


TJie  Purpose  of  the  JewisJi  Sabbath.    137 

rest  remains  for  you.  You  have  come  out  of 
Egypt  forever ;  and  though  you  are  in  the 
wilderness  still,  and  have  hardships  and  dis- 
comforts and  fatigues  to  endure,  plenty  of  them, 
do  not  be  discouraged :  there  is  verily  a  rest  in 
store,  surely  a  rest  remains.  Take  heart,  and 
trust  in  God  for  it."  This  was  what  the  sev- 
enth day  declared  to  them  so  often  as  it  came. 

Naturally  enough,  they  at  first  supposed  this 
promise  was  to  be  fulfilled  as  soon  as  they 
should  get  out  of  the  wilderness.  They  used 
to  say  to  themselves,  probably,  while  they 
were  wandering  through  those  perilous  deserts, 
"This  is  hard,  but  let  us  wait  until  we  enter 
Canaan  :  it  will  all  be  over  then.  Then  we 
shall  be  at  rest.  That  is  a  goodly  land,  beauti- 
ful, well  watered,  rich  and  bountiful,  and,  more 
than  all,  our  own.  Wait  till  we  get  there.  It 
will  all  be  over  then.  And  then  we  shall  be  at 
rest." 

So,  after  forty  years  of  toilsome  wandering, 
and  after  one  whole,  generation  of  the  people 
had  been  worn  out  in  the  desert,  the  long- 
looked-for  day  arrived.  They  crossed  the  bound- 
ary river,   and   they   entered   into   the   goodly 


138  The  Sabbath    Question. 

land.  It  was  indeed  a  goodly  land,  but  it  was 
not  a  land  of  rest  to  them.  Beset  by  foes  on 
every  hand,  compelled  to  fight  for  standing- 
ground  with  enemies  not  few  nor  feeble,  they 
had  but  a  stormy  and  unrestful  time  of  it.  And 
presently  the  truth  began  to  dawn  on  them,  that 
Joshua,  their  new  leader,  had  not  given  them 
rest  any  more  than  Moses  had ;  that  the  rest, 
the  true  rest,  the  rest  which  their  souls  needed, 
was  not  to  be  had  even  here,  was  not,  at  least, 
to  be  had  yet.  But  all  the  time  this  seventh 
day  kept  coming,  with  its  significant  name, 
with  its  clustering  associations,  with  its  myste- 
rious reference  to  the  rest  of  God,  with  its 
historic  connection  with  their  deliverance  from 
bondage.  Surely  this  must  mean  something. 
They  had  not  found  its  meaning  yet,  but  they 
could  not  help  believing  that  it  had  a  meaning. 
So  the  Sabbath  day  remained  a  constant  and 
illusive  prophecy. 

And  so  the  years  rolled  by,  and  still  con- 
tinual wars  harassed  them  ;  and  if  for  a  little 
time  there  came  a  season  of  prosperity,  it  was 
broken  up  again  by  some  calamity:  just  as, 
though  the  Sabbath  came  at  intervals  of  seven 


T!ie  Purpose  of  the  'Jewish  Sabbath.    139 

days,  to  bring  repose  to  tired  bodies  and  to  toil- 
ing: hands,  to  master  and  to  servant  and  to 
cattle,  yet  it  was  soon  over,  and  the  weary 
round  of  work-day  labor,  and  of  fighting,  and  of 
troubles,  would  begin  again.  Until  in  David's 
time  (or  a  little  later),  the  "rest"  was  seen  to 
be  still  future,  and  more  remote  and  vague  than 
ever ;  and  they  had  ceased  to  look  for  it  so 
confidently  as  temporal  and  earthly.  Still  the 
seventh  day  returned  and  kept  returning ;  but, 
to  the  more  thoughtful  and  spiritually  minded 
of  the  people,  it  was  now  prophetic  of  things 
higher,  things  unseen,  things  scarcely  to  be 
defined  in  speech.  That  sublime  call  to  wor- 
ship in  the  ninety-fifth  Psalm  indicates  this 
growth  and  discipline  of  the  people,  and  their 
exaltation  to  a  higher  stand-point.  "  Let  us 
worship  and  fall  down,"  the  Psalmist  says,  "let 
us  bow  before  the  Lord  our  Maker."  He 
created  us.  He  is  leading  us.  He  has  rest  in 
store  for  us.  What  it  is  we  know  not.  Many 
have  failed  of  it.  But  it  still  remains.  I  think 
the  very  structure  of  this  Psalm  is  full  of  elo- 
quent suggestion.  It  begins  with  a  burst  of 
worshipful  acclamation  ;    but  it  sinks  to  silent 


140  The  Sabbath    Question. 

reverence  and  awe,  and  closes  in  a  hush  of 
mingled  fear  and  hope  on  that  word  "rest,"  — 
as  if  the  meaning  of  it  could  not  perfectly  be 
uttered. 

So  this  thought  of  rest  kept  growing  strong- 
er, even  although  it  was  growing  higher  and 
seemingly  more  distant.  It  was  a  thought 
which  never  lost  its  hold  upon  the  people.  It 
was  the  central  thought  of  their  religious  sys- 
tem. Six  days  they  might  forget  it,  but  on  the 
seventh  they  remembered  it.  The  idea  was  so 
wedged  into  their  religious  observances  that  it 
could  not  possibly  be  taken  out  without  the 
dislocation  of  them  all.  The  weekly  Sabbath 
was  not  the  only  Sabbath.  There  was  a  Sab- 
bath of  weeks  as  well  as  of  days  ;  and  a  Sabbath 
of  months ;  and  a  great,  memorable,  wonderful 
Sabbath  of  years,  —  of  rest  for  a  whole  year, 
every  fiftieth  year.1  The  Sabbath  of  clays 
pointed  to  the  Sabbath  of  weeks,  and  this 
again  to  the  Sabbath  of  months,  and  this  again 
to  the  Sabbath  of  years,  and  this — -to  what? 
Could  it  be  that  the  mind  of  the  Hebrew  peo- 

1  Exod.  xxiii.  10-13:  cf.  especially  Lev.  xxiii.  3,  15,  24,  33-39; 
xxv.  1-24  ;  xxvi.  2  ;  Deut.  xv. 


The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    141 

pie,  led  on  and  up,  thus  far,  would  stop  here  ? 
Would  it  not  almost  of  necessity  rise  higher 
yet, — even  from  earth  to  heaven?  Or  let  me 
put  the  case  a  little  differently.  The  seventh 
day  in  its  weekly  return  reminded  them  of  rest 
from  slavery,  of  rescue  from  Egypt,  of  repose 
in  Canaan.  But  this, — had  this  no  higher 
meaning?  was  this  all?  Was  there  not  a  bet- 
ter Canaan,  a  happier  land,  a  repose  more  per- 
fect, where  no  foes  could  enter,  where  no  evils 
could  annoy,  where  no  sorrows  could  trouble, 
where  no  death  could  kill  ?  And  then  would 
come  the  thought — there  must  be  such  a  rest, 
for  we  are  told  that  God  rested  ;  and  surely  his 
rest  can  be  no  fitful,  transient,  troubled  rest, 
like  ours. 

It  will  not  be  possible,  within  the  limits  of 
one  sermon,  to  finish  our  examination  of  the 
Hebrew  Sabbath.  Already  it  is  evident  that 
there  is  much  to  be  learned  from  a  wise  study 
of  it.  All  that  I  have  tried  to  do,  to-day,  is  to 
set  forth  the  purpose  of  that  Sabbath,  and  the 
meaning  of  it.  And  for  that  reason  I  took  for 
my  text,  not  the  commandment  as  it  is  written 
in  Exodus,  but  the  commandment  as  it  is  writ- 


142  The  Sabbath   Question. 

ten  in  Deuteronomy.  The  reason  for  the  Jew- 
ish Sabbath  which  is  given  in  Exodus,  is  the 
rest  of  God.  The  reason  for  it  given  in  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy,  is  the  rest  in  Canaan. 
But  from  both  books  it  is  evident  that  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath  was  not  ordained  for  its 
own  sake  merely,  but  for  some  other  and  higher 
reason.  It  was  a  clay  of  prophecy.  It  was  a 
day  of  promise.  Week  after  week  it  came  to 
this  Hebrew  people,  and  found  them  sinful, 
toilsome,  tired  still.  Generation  after  genera- 
tion they  lived  in  Canaan  ;  and  this  day  return- 
ing found  them  troubled,  restless,  sinful  still. 
Centuries  of  hard  experience  taught  them  more 
and  more  perfectly  the  bitter  lesson  which 
found  expression,  at  last,  in  the  words  of  one 
of  their  own  prophets,  that  the  "wicked  are 
like  the  troubled  sea,  which  cannot  rest."  They 
could  not  rest.  They  were  not  at  peace  with 
God.  Their  kings  and  soldiers  and  legislators 
—  David,  Joshua,  Moses  —  had  not  given  them 
rest,  could  not  give  them  rest.  And  yet  here 
the  day  was,  coming,  coming,  in  its  regular 
return,  and  coming  only  to  be  a  mockery,  a 
bitter    mockery,   unless    there    was    a  real  rest 


The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    143 

remaining.  So  they  clung  to  the  persuasion 
that  there  was  such  a  rest.  And  at  last  the 
son  of  David  came,  another  Joshua,  a  prophet 
greater  than  Moses,  bringing  grace  and  truth 
and  life,  and  rest  eternal.  Then  the  signifi- 
cance of  all  these  monumental  days  and  rites 
and  ceremonies  became  apparent. 

Of  course,  then,  the  seventh  day  was  not  the 
Sabbath,  is  not  the  Sabbath.  The  Sabbath  is 
not  a  day  of  twenty-four  hours  at  all.  The 
seventh  day  may  be  a  Sabbath  ;  or  the  first  day 
may  be  a  Sabbath,  if  there  is  any  reason  for 
making  it  so,  as  we  shall  by  and  by  find  there 
is  a  most  sufficient  reason  ;  any  day  may  be 
a  Sabbath,  as  John  Calvin,  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation,  seems  to  have  proposed,  most 
unwisely,  to  make  Thursday  a  Sabbath ; r  or, 
better  still,  every  day  of  Christian  life  may  be 
a  Sabbath,  —  the  type  and  prophecy,  nay,  more, 
the  earnest  and  foretaste  of  the  eternal  rest. 
If  the  Sabbath  of  God  be  a  mere  twenty-four 
hours'  rest,  then  it  must  be  the  seventh  day  ; 
and  I  do  not  see  how  any  logic  can  escape  the 
obligation    to    acknowledge    it,    or   bridge    the 

1  Cf.  Hessey,  p.  142,  and  Cox.  vol.  2,  p.  121. 


144  The  Sabbath    Question. 

insuperable  chasm  which,  on  that  theory,  sepa 
rates  the  seventh  day  from  the  first,  and  from 
all  others.  But  if  the  Sabbath  be  eternal  in 
the  heavens,  and  all  days  of  time  but  shadowy 
types  of  that  eternal  clay,  then,  whether  it  may 
be  the  seventh  day  that  men  commemorate,  or 
the  first  day,  or  any  day,  or  every  day,  can 
make  no  fatal  difference. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  story  of  the  wandering 
of  these  Hebrew  tribes  is  not  without  its  pres- 
ent and  most  practical  significance  to  us,  — 
the  story  of  their  wanderings  and  of  their  dis- 
appointments, and  of  their  illusive  types  and 
shadows.  "  These  things"  said  an  apostle,1 
"  were  our  examples  ;  .  .  .  and  they  are  writ- 
ten for  our  admonition,  upon  whom  the  ends 
of  the  world  are  come."  Have  we  not  also 
wandered  in  deserts  and  in  wildernesses,  rest- 
less and  unsatisfied  ?  Have  not  we  been  seek- 
ing rest  in  God's  creatures,  and  not  in  God 
himself?  Have  we  not  tried  to  be  content 
with  shadows  rather  than  with  the  eternal  sub- 
stance of  the  Sabbath  ?  And  have  we  not 
learned  —  some  of  us,  I  am  sure,  have  learned 

1   I  Cor.  x.  1-1 1. 


The  Purpose  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    145 

at  last  —  that  there  is  rest  for  us  only  in  Gocl  ? 
We  have  learned,  at  last,  to  say  with  St. 
Augustine,  "  Thou  hast  made  us  for  thyself, 
and  our  heart  is  restless  till  it  rest  in  thee."  x 
Let  us  remember,  then,  that  earth  cannot  fur- 
nish us  the  perfect  Sabbath,  —  that  time  does 
not  contain  it.  It  is  the  rest  of  God.  It  is 
eternal  in  the  heavens. 

This  is  the  practical  and  important  lesson 
with  which  I  suspend  this  meditation.  And  to 
sum  up  and  enforce  what  I  have  been  trying  to 
say,  I  borrow  these  stanzas,  antique  and  quaint, 
but  very  beautiful  and  very  true,  from  good 
George  Herbert.  The  lesson  which  was  taught 
the  Hebrew  people  in  their  weekly  Sabbath,  the 
lesson  which  we  need  to  learn  by  all  our  per- 
sonal human  experiences,  is  the  lesson  which 
this  poem  also  teaches,  in  language  better  than 
I  can  find  :  — 

"  When  God  at  first  made  man, 
Having  a  glasse  of  blessings  standing  by, 
Let  us  (said  he)  poure  on  him  all  we  can : 
Let  the  world's  riches,  which  dispersed  lie, 
Contract  into  a  span. 

1  Confessions,  i.  i. 


146  The  Sabbath   Question. 

So  strength  first  made  a  way  ; 
Then  beautie  flow'd  ;  then  wisdome,  honor,  pleasure 
When  almost  all  was  out,  God  made  a  stay, 
Perceiving  that  alone,  of   all  his  treasure, 

Rest  in  the  bottome  lay. 

For,  if    I  should  (said  he) 
Bestow  this  Jewell  also  on  my  creature, 
He  would  adore  my  gifts  instead  of   me, 
And  rest  in  nature,  not  the  God  of  nature  : 

So  both  should  losers  be. 

Yet  let  him  keep  the  rest, 
But  keep  them  with  repining  restlessnesse : 
Let  him  be  rich  and  wearie,  that  at  least, 
If  goodnesse  leade  him  not,  yet  wearinesse 

May  tosse  him  to  my  breast." 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    147 


III. 


THE   USE   AND   ABUSE    OF   THE 
JEWISH    SABBATH. 

"  GHjerefore  sato  some  of  tfje  ^fjartsces,  £f)is  man  is  not  of 
(Sod,  because  \z  ncepetf)  not  tfjc  Sabbatfj  oag."  — Jom\  ix.  16. 

WHAT,  then,  had  this  man  done  by  which 
the  Sabbath  day  was  violated  ?  And 
who  was  he  who  was  proved  thus  to  be  "  not 
of  God  "  ? 

The  story  is  familiar  to  us  all.  It  was  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  the  young  prophet  of  Galilee,  con- 
cerning whom  some  men  had  already  begun  to 
believe  that  he  was  the  Messiah.  It  was  now 
more  than  two  years  since  he  had  begun  his 
public  ministry  as  a  religious  teacher  ;  and 
during  all  this  time  he  had  been  conspicuous 
among  men  for  words  of  singular  wisdom,  for 
deeds  of  very  beautiful  and  tender  compassion, 
and  of  wonderful  power,  —  in  a  word,  for  a  life 
spent  in  doing  good.     No  one  could  lay  to  his 


148  The  Sabbath   Question. 

charge  an  unkind,  dishonorable,  or  selfish  act. 
No  one  could  accuse  him  of  immorality,  or  of 
any  violation  of  the  law  of  love.  He  had  ene- 
mies, to  be  sure,  plenty  of  them  —  bitter  ones  ; 
enemies  quick  to  detect  iniquity  in  him,  had 
there  been  iniquity ;  enemies  who  were  con- 
spiring against  him,  and,  on  one  pretext  or 
another,  continually  denouncing  him  as  un- 
trustworthy and  bad.  They  could  not  charge 
him  with  violating  any  moral  law,  but  they 
could  charge  him  with  neglect  of  traditional 
ceremonies.  They  could  not  deny  that  he 
healed  sick  men  ;  but  they  could  insist  that  he 
healed  them  in  some  irregular  way,  or  by  some 
malign  power.  If  they  were  obliged  to  con- 
fess, sometimes,  that  he  had  done  good,  at  least 
they  could  criticise  his  methods,  and  condemn, 
as  evil,  the  place,  the  time,  or  some  attendant 
circumstance.  It  is  always  instructive  to  know 
what  a  man's  enemies  say  of  him.  And  when 
they  can  find  no  charge  to  produce,  except  a 
quibble  or  a  technicality,  when  they  can  say 
nothing  against  the  spirit  of  a  man,  but  only 
something  against  his  forms,  —  such  as  a  vio- 
lation of  usage  or  tradition  or  ceremonial  rite, 
« — the  fact  is  most  significant. 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    149 

Such  an  instance  was  the  one  referred  to  in 
the  text.  Jesus,  passing  along  through  the 
streets  of  Jerusalem,  had  seen  an  unfortunate 
man  who  had  been  blind  from  his  birth.  Be- 
sides the  calamity  of  blindness,  there  attached 
to  him  also  some  stigma  of  moral  disgrace,  as 
if  his  blindness  must  be  the  result  of  special 
and  pre-eminent  sinfulness,  either  on  his  own 
part  or  on  the  part  of  his  parents,  —  so  that 
the  man  was  made  out  to  be,  not  merely  unfor- 
tunate, but  infamous.  We  need  not  pursue  the 
story,  except  to  say  that  Jesus  rejected  per- 
emptorily the  notion  that  the  man's  blindness 
was  the  mark  of  any  conspicuous  sinfulness  ; 
and  then,  by  an  act  of  gracious  power,  re- 
moved the  life-long  darkness  by  which  he  had 
been  afflicted,  doing  thus  a  double  service  to 
the  unhappy  man,  and  sending  him  away 
thankful  and  astonished. 

Certainly  this  was  a  kind  and  gracious  thing 
to  do  :  and  certainly,  the  wisdom  which  Christ 
had  shown  in  his  exposure  of  the  cruel  notion 
held  by  his  disciples,  and  by  the  community  at 
large  ;  the  power  which  he  had  shown  in  the 
miracle   of   healing ;    the   love   which    he   had 


150  The  Sabbath   Question. 

shown  in  his  treatment  of  the  sufferer,  —  all 
these  might  have  secured  the  approval  of  the 
Pharisees,  and  might  have  seemed  to  them, 
sitting  as  the  religious  authorities  of  the  na- 
tion, like  credentials  of  a  divine  mission  on 
the  part  of  Jesus.  But,  as  it  happened,  the 
day  on  which  this  deed  had  been  performed, 
was  the  weekly  Sabbath,  on  which,  according 
to  the  commandment,  there  must  be  no  work 
performed.  To  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind  was 
work,  —  thus  they  argued  ;  and  even  our  Lord 
himself  seemed  to  admit  it,  —  for  when  he  did 
the  miracle,  it  was  with  the  solemn  words,  "  I 
must  work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  me, 
while  it  is  day."  So,  then,  this  was  work : 
but  the  commandment  forbids  work  on  the 
Sabbath  ;  but  this  was  on  the  Sabbath  ;  there- 
fore Jesus  has  not  kept  God's  commandment  ; 
therefore  he  cannot  be  of  God, — and  being 
not  of  God,  no  further  hint  was  needful  to 
indicate  whence,  in  their  opinion,  he  must  be. 
All  the  wisdom  of  his  words,  all  the  power  and 
skill  of  his  deed,  all  the  loving  and  pure  com- 
passion of  his  spirit,  was  to  pass  for  nothing, 
because  he  did  not  keep  the  Sabbath  day !     Or, 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    1 5  1 

rather  let  us  say,  because  he  did  not  keep  it 
as  they  thought  it  should  be  kept ;  because  his 
opinions  did  not  square  with  theirs  ;  because 
his  manners  were  not  strict  enough,  according 
to  their  standard. 

I  wish  to  take  this  story  as  giving  us  a 
glimpse  of  how  the  Jewish  Sabbath  was  re- 
garded in  the  time  of  Christ,  and  of  the  strict 
and  literal  exactness  with  which  the  command 
to  keep  it  holy  was  observed ;  an  exactness 
so  strict  and  literal,  that  it  might  even  make 
the  day  unholy,  irksome,  evil.  Remember  that 
the  Pharisees  were  the  religious  teachers  of  the 
people,  sitting,  as  our  Lord  said,  in  Moses' 
seat,  and  looked  up  to  as  the  recognized  and 
authoritative  expounders  of  the  law.  Remem- 
ber also  that  this  was  not  the  only  instance 
when  they  found  fault  with  Jesus  as  a  Sabbath- 
breaker.  Over  and  over  again  this  charge  was 
brought,  and  in  such  a  way  as  indicates  that 
they  were  very  much  in  earnest  in  it,  and  even 
believed  themselves  to  be  in  the  right  in  making 
it.  On  the  other  hand,  our  Lord  himself  seems 
to  have  been  in  no  way  careful  to  avoid  giving 
occasion    for   the    charge,    even    taking    pains 


152  TJie  Sabbat  J  1   Question. 

sometimes  to  do  things  publicly  upon  the  Sab- 
bath day  which  he  knew  might  be  complained 
of  and  brought  up  against  him.  And  his  reply 
to  the  Pharisees,  when  they  made  the  charge, 
was,  not  that  he  was  justified  in  violating  the 
Sabbath,  but  that  he  had  not  violated  the  Sab- 
bath. He  acknowledged  that  he  was  still  a 
Jew,  and  that  it  was  becoming  in  him  to  fulfil 
all  righteousness.  So  he  was  circumcised.  So 
he  was  baptized  by  John.  So  he  offered  sacri- 
fice and  observed  festivals.  So  he  conformed 
to  the  law  of  Moses  ;  and,  as  I  say,  the  way  in 
which  he  defended  himself,  the  ground  which 
he  took  in  reply  to  this  accusation,  was,  that  he 
had  not  broken  the  Sabbath,  but  had  kept  it. 

Which  was  right,  —  he,  or  they  ?  Was  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  what  they  made  it,  or  was  it 
what  he  made  it  ?  And,  if  they  were  wrong, 
wherein  did  their  mistake  consist  ? 

We  cannot  hesitate,  of  course,  in  our  answer 
to  the  first  question.  And  the  answer  to  the 
first  involves  the  answer  to  the  second.  The 
Jewish  Sabbath  was  meant  to  be  a  privilege. 
The  Pharisees  had  made  it  a  bondage.  It  was 
meant    to    be  a  holy  day.     But  the  Pharisees, 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    153 

by  such  interpretation  of  its  holiness  as  they 
would  have  enforced  on  Jesus,  made  it  an 
unholy  day ;  so  that,  though  upon  six  days  it 
might  be  lawful  to  do  good,  upon  the  seventh 
to  do  good  was  not  lawful,  and  such  an  act  as 
the  opening  a  blind  man's  eyes  became  wicked. 
The  Sabbath  was  meant  to  be  a  means.  They 
would  make  it  an  end  of  itself.  God  designed 
it  as  a  sign  of  something  higher.  They  treated 
it  as  if  it  were  itself  the  thing  signified.  As  I 
said  a  week  ago,  it  was  a  Sabbath,  but  not  the 
perfect,  the  real  Sabbath.  The  trouble  with 
them  was,  that  they  treated  it  as  if  it  were  the 
real  and  perfect  Sabbath.  They  are  not  the 
only  ones  who  have  fallen  into  this  error,  and 
have  rested  in  the  letter  rather  than  in  the 
spirit ;  have  been  content  with  the  body  rather 
than  with  the  soul  of  things ;  have  grasped  at 
the  shadow  and  let  go  the  substance ;  have 
stopped  short  with  things  seen  and  temporal, 
and  not  looked  at  the  things  which  are  unseen 
and  eternal. 

This  was  the  difference  between  Christ  and 
the  Pharisees.  Christ's  reverence  for  the  law 
of  Moses  was  not  less  than  theirs,  it  was  un- 


154  The  Sabbath    Question. 

speakably  greater.  He  did  not  come  to  destroy 
it,  he  came  to  fulfil  it.  He  saw,  and  he  aimed 
to  show,  that  the  spirit  of  that  law  was  greater 
than  the  Tetter  of  it  could  hold,  and  must, 
presently,  throw  off  the  letter  as  a  husk,  and 
hinderance  of  its  greatness.  Guide-posts  are 
good  while  one  is  journeying,  but  he  does  not 
need  them  when  he  has  reached  his  journey's 
end.  Hope  is  good,  till  one  has  the  fruition  of 
the  thing  hoped  for ;  and  then  it  ceases  to  be 
necessary.  So  the  Jewish  types  and  prophecies 
were  good,  until  the  realities  of  which  they 
spoke  arrived,  and  then  they  were  no  longer 
useful.  The  time  was  close  at  hand  when  all 
these  should  pass  away,  —  close  at  hand,  but 
not  yet  quite  present.  Men  were  Jews  yet. 
Even  our  Lord  himself  was  a  Jew,  observing 
the  Jewish  law.  He  was  in  the  flesh  as  yet. 
And  though  he  was  himself  the  truth  to  which 
all  these  types  and  monuments  and  ordinances 
pointed,  yet  the  veil,  that  is  to  say,  his  flesh,  hid 
him  for  the  present.  In  a  little  while  he  would 
be  lifted  up ;  the  veil,  that  is  to  say,  his  flesh, 
would  be  laid  aside  ;  he  would  be  present  in  the 
Spirit,  nearer,  everywhere,  always,  —  and  then 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    155 

the  ordinances  were  to  cease.  But  as  yet  they 
were  to  be  observed,  and  he  himself  set  the 
example  of  perfect  observance. 

One  of  these  types  and  ordinances  was  the 
seventh-day  Sabbath.  Presently  that  was  to 
cease.  But  it  had  not  ceased  as  yet.  It  was  a 
good  thing,  a  useful  type,  a  pleasant  promise, 
a  most  serviceable  means.  It  was  made  for 
man.  And  the  true  way  to  reverence  it  was  to 
use  it  as  a  privilege,  to  employ  it  as  a  means. 
Without  doubt  Jesus  rested  on  the  seventh 
day,  and  was  glad  enough  to  rest.  Without 
doubt,  when  the  six  days  were  over,  with  their 
trials  in  the  carpenter's  shop,  or  with  their 
weary  round  of  journeyings  from  village  to 
village,  with  their  thronging  multitudes  claim- 
ing his  care  and  time  and  painful  anxiety,  — 
without  doubt  this  seventh  day  was  a  blessed 
day  to  the  fatigued  and  tired  teacher  and  his 
twelve  friends  and  followers.  No  doubt  the 
privileges  of  the  synagogue,  with  its  worship, 
public  and  formal,  of  the  God  of  Israel,  were 
welcome.  No  doubt  he  rested  from  his  weekly 
duties  and  employments,  counting  it  a  privilege 
and  even  a  duty  so  to  rest.    But  if  the  Pharisees 


156  The  Sabbath   Question. 

attempted  to  compel  him  to  the  observance  of 
their  foolish  and  unscriptural  strictnesses  :  to 
say  that,  if  he  saw  a  blind  man  whom  he  could 
give  sight  to,  he  must  let  him  stay  blind ;  if  he 
saw  a  sick  man,  that  he  must  not  heal  him  ;  if 
he  passed  hungry  through  the  corn-fields,  that 
he  must  not  pluck,  in  passing,  a  few  ears  to 
eat,  because  all  this  was  work,  —  then  he  would 
say,  that  the  Pharisees  were  trying  to  make  the 
commandment  of  God  of  none  effect  by  their 
traditions,  and  were  abusing  the  Sabbath  in- 
stead of  using  it. 

It  is  probable  that  we  have,  even  at  this  day, 
a  mistaken  impression  concerning  the  Jewish 
Sabbath.  From  the  repeated  emphasis  which 
is  put  upon  the  observance  of  it  in  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  ;  from  the  penalties  which,  by  the 
Jewish  law,  were  threatened  and  sometimes  en- 
forced upon  the  violation  of  it ;  from  a  false 
idea  of  what  keeping  a  thing  holy  means,  and 
of  wherein  holiness  consists,  —  from  these  and 
other  causes  we  have  accustomed  ourselves  to 
believe  that  it  was  an  irksome  day,  a  sad  and 
gloomy  day,  a  fast,  a  day  on  which  to  afflict 
one's  soul.     It  was  not  such  a  day.     To  make 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    1 5  7 

it  such  a  clay  was  to  abuse  it.  If  it  was  de- 
fended by  penalties,  it  was  for  the  same  reason 
that  a  perverse  child  is  prevented  by  penalties 
from  over-exerting  himself  in  any  way,  or  from 
running  into  any  kind  of  danger.  To  read  of 
a  man  stoned  for  gathering  sticks  on  the  Sab- 
bath may  startle  us  at  first,  and  may  make  it 
look  as  if  the  day  were  a  harsh  and  severe 
institution.  But  it  was  because  the  day  was 
so  beneficent  that  the  crime  of  a  man  who 
undertook  to  destroy  it  was  so  heinous.  Moses 
was  very  much  in  earnest,  had  to  be  very  much 
in  earnest ;  and  he  was  not  willing  that  an  in- 
stitution, which  was  given  to  be  a  blessing  to 
the  nation,  through  generation  after  generation, 
should  be  destroyed  at  the  very  outset  by  one 
rebellious  and  mischievous  man.  So  he  had 
him  put  to  death,1  and  made  of  him  a  conspicu- 
ous example  that  was  remembered  through  all 
coming  time,  so  long  as  the  Jews  were  a  na- 
tion.    But  we  make  a  great  mistake  if  we  sup- 

1  Num.  xv.  32-36.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  this,  the  only  re- 
corded instance  of  the  infliction  of  the  death-penalty  for  Sabbath 
breaking,  occurred  "  while  the  children  of  Israel  were  in  the  wilder- 
ness," —  when  the  Sabbath  was  as  yet  a  new  thing,  and  the  value  of 
it  needed  to  be  signally  emphasized. 


158  The  Sabbath   Question. 

pose,  that  because  the  penalties  which  guarded 
and  preserved  the  day  were  severe,  therefore 
the  day  itself  was  severe.  The  one  only  com- 
mandment concerning  it  was,  that  it  should  be 
a  rest-day.  No  possible  language  could  have 
conveyed  to  that  nation  of  emancipated  slaves 
a  gladder  idea  of  it  than  that  it  was  a  day  on 
which  they  need  not  work.  They  knew  what 
work  was,  with  a  very  sorrowful  knowledge, 
indeed ;  but,  for  centuries,  they  had  hardly 
known  what  rest  was.  And  an  ordinance 
which  ordained  for  them  a  seventh  part  of 
their  whole  time,  during  which  they  need  not 
work,  but  might  sleep,  and  recreate  and  enjoy 
themselves,  with  the  assurance  that  in  so  doing 
they  were  doing  nothing  wrong,  but  were  even 
performing  a  sacred  duty,  with  the  knowledge 
that  they  were  pleasing  God  by  thus  being 
happy,  —  this  was  a  privilege  so  beneficent,  a 
boon  so  gracious,  that,  when  fairly  understood, 
it  could  not  fail  to  be  a  very  welcome  and  most 
precious  ordinance. 

If  it  seems  to  some  that  the  injunction  against 
work  must  have  made  the  day  a  fast-day,  it  may 
be  worth  while  to  say  a  word  or  two  upon   that 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    159 

point.  They  could  not,  it  is  true,  cook  on  the 
Sabbath  day  ;  but  to  a  rude  and  simple  people 
that  was  no  great  deprivation.  They  could  eat, 
and  they  could  even  feast.1  Social  visiting  was 
not  forbidden,  nor  the  giving  of  a  feast,  pro- 
vided the  feast  involved  no  labor  on  the  part  of 
master  or  of  servant  in  the  household.  In  the 
statement  of  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  given  in 
Deuteronomy,  the  reason  why  there  could  be 
no  cooking  appears,  —  "  that  thy  man-servant* 
and  thy  maid-servant  may  rest  as  well  as  thou." 
It  was  not  at  all  that  the  day  should  thus  be 
made  a  fast-day.  And  it  must  be  remembered, 
that  in  those  early  times,  and  among  that  rude 
and  simple  people,  cooking  had  not  become  a 
fine  art  ;  and  it  was  thought  possible  to  exist 
and  even  to  be  happy  upon  very  simple  fare. 
Whether    the    change  which    has    taken    place 

1  The  incident  recorded  in  Luke  xiv.  1-24,  especially  v.  7,  in- 
dicating that  the  feast  was  on  a  somewhat  large  scale,  is  sufficiently 
decisive  on  this  point.  But  see  also  Alford's  note  on  this  passage, 
and  Trench  on  the  parable  of  "  The  Great  Supper;"  also  the  author- 
ities quoted  by  Cox,  under  the  article  "Feasting  on  the  Sabbath  ;  " 
also  the  article  "Sabbath,"  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible;  also 
the  noteworthy  article  on  "  The  Talmud,"  in  the  London  Quarterly 
Review  for  October,  1867,  Am.  ed.,  p.  232. 


160  The  Sabbath   Question. 

since  then,  and  the  difference  between  our 
usages  and  tastes  and  theirs,  is  wholly  an  ad- 
vance, it  is  foreign  to  the  scope  of  this  dis- 
course to  discuss. 

What  I  am  insisting  on  is,  that  the  seventh- 
day  rest  which  Moses  enjoined  upon  the  Jewish 
people  was  designed  to  be  a  blessing  and  not  a 
bondage.  It  was  to  be  a  symbol  of  a  greater 
blessing  in  store  for  them,  but  it  was  also  to 
be  itself  a  blessing.  It  could  scarcely  speak 
to  them  of  happiness  hereafter,  if  it  were  not 
itself  happy.  It  was  to  be  made  holy  ;  but 
holiness  did  not  mean  austerity  nor  acerbity 
nor  asceticism.  It  was  to  be  a  pure  day,  a 
clean  day,  or,  as  the  word  translated  "  holy " 
may  suggest  by  its  derivation,1  a  bright  day  ; 
if  you  please,  a  shining  or  sunny  day.  Its 
cheerfulness  was  to  prophesy  the  cheerfulness 
of  heaven.  Its  social  enjoyments  were  to  sug- 
gest the  fellowship  of  heaven.  To  be  happy 
on  this  day  was  a  privilege,  nay,  was  even  a 
duty.  And  you  cannot  find  in  all  the  law  of 
Moses  any  thing  that  even  looks  like  making 

1  See  Gesenius'  Lexicon,  s.  v.  BHp,  and  the  perhaps  kindred  tJHn, 
of  which  the  primary  idea  is  "  to  be  bright." 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    1 6 1 

it  a  hardship.  Was  it  any  hardship  to  that 
people,  aching  in  all  their  bones  with  their 
centuries  of  unpaid  toil,  to  be  told  that  they 
might  rest  ? J  We  know  how  a  slave  feels  when 
he  is  told  that  he  may  have  a  holiday.  We 
know  how  a  school-boy  feels  when  he  is  told 
that  he  may  have  a  recess.  To  tell  him  that  he 
must  not  study  till  the  recess  is  over,  to  even 
impose  a  penalty  upon  him  for  doing  so,  is  no 
such  very  dreadful  thing. 

Unquestionably,  the  seventh-day  Sabbath  be- 
gan to  lose  something  of  its  original  character, 
long  before  the  time  of  the  gospel  history. 
Studying  the  Old  Testament,  we  discover  on 
the  one  hand  a  growing  formality,  on  the  other 
hand  a  growing  superstition.  It  was  character- 
istic of  that  Hebrew  people,  it  is  characteristic 
of  all  peoples  more  or  less,  to  run  from  one 
extreme  to  another.  After  they  came  to  be 
settled  in  their  own  land,  and    had    begun    to 

1  A  striking  illustration  of  this  is  to  De  found  in  a  fact  related  by 
an  observant  traveller  concerning  the  slaves  in  the  Southern  States. 
No  hymn  sung  in  their  religious  meetings  was  more  popular  than 
"  Welcome,  sweet  day  of  rest."  At  a  Sunday-morning  prayer-meet- 
ing it  would  sometimes  be  sung  three  or  four  times  over  in  the  course 
of  the  hour. 


1 62  The  Sabbath   Question. 

feel  the  pride  of  prosperity,  and  to  forget  the 
hardships  of  their  Egyptian  slavery,  it  was  not 
pleasant  to  be  reminded  all  the  time  of  that 
degrading  fact.  When  a  man  gets  to  be  rich, 
he  does  not  like  to  be  reminded  that  he  was 
once  poor.  When  a  man  has  achieved  distinc- 
tion of  any  sort,  he  will  not  thank  you  to  tell 
him  that  he  or  his  father  was  once  a  very  hum- 
ble and  ordinary  man.  It  hurts  his  pride.  So 
with  this  people.  They  were  not  very  fond  of 
remembering  that  they  were  servants  in  the 
land  of  Egypt.  But  this  was  what  their  sev- 
enth-day Sabbath  was  designed  to  remind  them 
of,  through  all  generations.  So  it  became  con- 
venient to  them,  presently,  to  fix  their  atten- 
tion upon  the  day,  rather  than  upon  what  it 
commemorated.  So,  too,  when  they  were  en- 
grossed with  earthly  things,  had  waxed  fat  and 
sordid,  and  had  learned  the  vices  of  prosperity, 
it  was  not  pleasant  to  have  this  seventh  day 
come  pricking  in  upon  their  luxury  and  sloth 
and  sensuality,  and  reminding  them  that  here 
was  not  their  rest,  —  that  their  true  rest  was 
beyond,  that  their  real  rest  was  above.  So,  for 
this  reason  also,  it  was  convenient  to  fix  their 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    163 

attention  on  the  day  itself,  and  not  on  what  it 
prophesied.  The  day  was  meant  to  point  back- 
ward, and  to  point  forward.  But  it  was  not 
pleasant  for  this  ungrateful  and  sordid  people 
to  look  either  way.  Backward  was  Egypt,  and 
the  disgrace  of  slavery.  Forward  was  —  who 
cared  for  what  was  forward  ?  "  Let  us  eat  and 
drink  and  be  merry,"  here  and  now  :  we  need 
no  other  rest ! 

So,  easily  enough,  naturally  enough,  the  day 
came  to  be,  either  a  merely  formal  thing,  or  else 
a  dreadfully  superstitious  thing.  It  had  come 
to  be  a  mere  form  in  the  time  of  the  prophet 
Isaiah.  The  people  had  ignored  its  meaning ; 
and,  though  they  kept  up  the  show  of  its  ob- 
servance, they  considered  it  a  bore,  and  they 
made  of  it  a  mockery.  So  that  God  is  repre- 
sented as  saying  to  them  at  the  beginning  of 
Isaiah's  prophecy,1  in  indignant  and  sorrowful 
reproof,  "  Bring  no  more  vain  oblations  ; 
the  new  moons  and  Sabbaths  ...  I  cannot 
away  with.  .  .  .  Your  new  moons  and  your 
appointed  feasts  my  soul  hateth."  Their  re- 
ligious observances,  of  which  the  Sabbath  was 

1  Chap.  i.  13,  14. 


164  The  Sabbath   Question. 

the  central  and  most  conspicuous  institution, 
had  come  to  be  a  mere  form.  They  meant 
nothing,  expressed  nothing,  suggested  nothing. 
The  soul  had  gone  out  of  them  ;  and,  though 
the  body  remained,  it  was  a  dry  and  dead  body. 
The  Sabbath  was  no  longer  "  a  delight,  —  the 
holy  of  the  Lord,  and  honorable." 

A  still  more  perfect  picture  of  this  merely 
formal  observance  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  is  sug- 
gested by  a  passage  in  the  book  of  the  prophet 
Amos.  This  prophet  was  a  contemporary  of 
Isaiah  ;  and  his  exhortations  to  the  nation  are 
prompted  by  the  same  circumstances,  the  same 
sins,  the  same  errors,  which  give  point  to  the 
prophecies  of  Isaiah.  The  selfish  and  corrupt 
people  are  described  (chap.  viii.  5,  6)  as  fretting 
beneath  the  Sabbath  rest,  as  if  it  were  a  yoke 
imposed  upon  them,  and  as  having  turned  what 
was  a  privilege  into  a  meaningless  and  irksome 
formality.  "When  will  the  new  moon  be 
gone,"  they  say,  "that  we  may  sell  corn?  and 
the  Sabbath  that  we  may  set  forth  wheat, 
making  the  ephah  small  and  the  shekel  great " 
(giving  scant  measure  and  charging  a  large 
price),  "and  falsifying  the  balances  by  deceit  ?" 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.   165 

Here,  even  in  a  more  striking  form  than  in  the 
passages  before  quoted,  is  the  picture  of  a  Sab- 
bath which  had  lost  all  significance,  which  com- 
memorated nothing,  which  pointed  forward  to 
nothing,  which  was  without  value  or  charm  ;  a 
monument  from  which  the  inscription  had  been 
obliterated  ;  a  guide-post  which  pointed  no  way. 
Cherished  for  itself  alone,  —  when  it  was  cher- 
ished at  all, — it  had  become  distasteful  to  men 
and  a  mockery  to  God. 

Well,  the  result  of  this  religious  declension, 
of  which  the  contempt  of  the  Sabbath  was  the 
most  conspicuous  instance,  was  disaster  and 
captivity  to  the  nation.  Since  they  had  learned 
to  hold  the  thought  of  rest  so  cheap,  they 
should  be  sent  to  school  again  to  learn  the 
value  of  it.  Captivity  in  Egypt  had  made  it 
very  welcome  once ;  perhaps  captivity  in  As- 
syria might  make  it  very  welcome  again.  And 
so  there  came  upon  the  Jews  that  period  of 
exile  and  disgrace,  seventy  years  of  sorrow  and 
humiliation  and  hardship.1  When  they  came 
back  again  into  their  own  land,  they  began  to 
observe  the  Sabbath  with  renewed  zeal.    Stricter 

1  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  21. 


1 66  The  Sabbath    Question. 

and  more  detailed  regulations  for  its  observ- 
ance were  enjoined  by  Nehemiah.1  But  the 
significance  of  the  day  as  a  religious  privilege 
was  never  quite  regained.  And  presently  the 
observance  of  it,  enforced  thus  by  the  strong 
arm  of  the  law,  began  to  degenerate  into  super- 
stition. The  headstrong  nation  had  not  learned 
its  lesson  yet.  They  had  learned  that  to  give 
up  their  Sabbath  was  not  safe.  But  they  had 
not  learned  that  their  Sabbath  was  a  blessing, 
and  not  a  bondage.  So  they  kept  the  day,  but 
they  kept  it  under  terror.  They  began  to  in- 
vent new  laws  concerning  it.  The  comprehen- 
sive law  of  Moses,  which  insisted  simply  and 
broadly,  that  on  this  day  every  one  should  have 
the  right  to  rest,  was  thought  to  be  insufficient. 
Stricter  and  stricter  were  the  lines  of  obliga- 
tion drawn,  till,  a  little  while  before  the  time  of 
our  Saviour,  during  the  progress  of  the  Macca- 
bean  wars,  a  thousand  Jews,  brave  but  mis- 
taken men,  were  slain  without  resistance  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  because  the  superstitious  rigor 
which  had  grown  up  since  the  captivity  made 
them  think  it  unlawful  to  defend  themselves.2 

1  Neh.  x.  31  ;  xiii.  15,  22. 

2  1  Mace.  ii.  38;  and  Josephus'  Antiquities,  B.  xii.,  ch.  vi.  2. 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    167 

Such  a  thing  could  scarcely  have  occurred  in 
the  time  of  Moses.  It  was  a  rigorous  observ- 
ance of  the  letter,  and  the  letter  killed. 

This  incident,  indeed,  gave  to  the  supersti- 
tious notion  concerning  the  Sabbath  a  great 
shock  ;  but  it  did  not  cure  it.  The  scribes  and 
Pharisees  kept  binding  burdens  heavier  and 
heavier  all  the  time,  till,  in  the  time  of  our  Lord, 
they  were  most  grievous  to  be  borne.  One 
school  of  zealots  even  taught,  that,  in  whatever 
posture  the  Sabbath  day  should  overtake  a  man, 
in  that  posture  he  must  remain  till  the  day  was 
over ;  if  standing  when  the  sun  set  on  Friday 
evening,  then  let  him  stand  till  Saturday  at 
evening ;  if  sitting,  let  him  sit  still,  because  to 
rise  was  to  work.  I  might  multiply  instances, 
some  of  them  so  trivial  that  they  would  be  even 
unfit  to  mention,  of  this  same  literalism,  of  this 
superstitious  bondage  to  the  seventh  day. 

I  do  not  say  that  all  these  notions  were 
current  among  the  Pharisees  and  indorsed  by 
them,  but  they  are  extreme  examples  of  what 
was  the  prevalent  Pharisaic  error.  To  open 
the  eyes  of  a  blind  man  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
was  a  crime  so  great  that  the  goodness  of  the 


1 68  The  Sabbath   Question. 

deed  must  pass  for  nothing,  —  this  was  the 
position  which  they  held.  The  day  was  posi- 
tively made  unholy,  by  being  reverenced  for 
itself  and  not  for  what  it  signified.  They  made 
an  idol  of  it.  They  acted  as  if  this  day  of 
twenty-four  hours  was  what  men  were  made  for, 
and  as  if  they  should  expend  their  energies  in 
its  observance. 

I  have  drawn  out  this  history  at  a  good  deal 
of  length,  to  show  wherein  the  mistake  of  the 
Pharisees  consisted.  They  had  not  used  the 
Sabbath,  they  had  suffered  it  to  use  them. 
They  had  swerved  from  the  Mosaic  command- 
ment, by  making  the  sign  conspicuous,  and 
losing  sight  of  the  thing  signified.  Kept  for 
itself,  as  a  dry  ordinance,  it  was  worse  than 
useless.  It  did  not  turn  their  thoughts  back- 
ward along  the  way  through  which  the  Lord 
their  God  had  led  them  ;  nor  did  it  turn  their 
thoughts  forward,  telescopically  opening  up 
eternity  before  them.  It  was  an  institution  to 
be  microscopically  scrutinized,  to  be  given  to 
God  because  he  had  arbitrarily  demanded  it, 
to  be  literally  kept,  although  the  letter  might 
be  irksome,  cruel,  deadly. 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.    169 

It  was  not  so  to  Jesus.  He  appealed  from 
the  Pharisees  to  Moses,  from  the  letter  to  the 
spirit.  He  showed  how  the  Sabbath  was  a 
means,  and  not  an  end ;  was  to  be  observed  as 
a  privilege,  and  as  a  prophecy  of  the  eternal 
Sabbath,  and  not  to  be  worn  as  a  yoke  of  bond- 
age, bowing  men's  faces  down  to  earth  instead 
of  raising  them  to  heaven.  Such  a  privilege 
and  prophecy  it  was  to  him.  How  he  must 
have  prized  its  welcome  rest,  when,  footsore, 
weary,  burdened,  almost  broken-hearted  with 
the  heavy  load  of  human  griefs  and  sicknesses 
which  he  had  taken  on  himself  to  carry,  and 
with  no  time  that  he  could  call  his  own,  this 
day  would  come  with  opportunities  for  quiet, 
for  retirement,  for  religious  worship  in  the 
synagogue,  or  on  the  mountains,  or  in  whatever 
solitudes  might  be  found,  and  for  fellowship 
with  the  few  friends  who  loved  and  trusted 
him  !  And  what  wonderful  and  pathetic  sacred- 
ness  of  meaning  must  the  day  have  had  to  him, 
—  speaking  to  him,  as  it  did,  of  that  other 
Jesus,  who,  centuries  before,  had  led  his  people 
over  Jordan  into  Canaan,  but  had  not  been 
able,  after  all,  to  give  them  rest,  —  speaking  to 


170  TJie  Sabbat Ji    Question, 

him  also  of  the  rest  from  sin  into  which  he 
himself  had  come  to  gather  them  ! 

Brethren,  this  Jewish  Sabbath  is  a  thing  of 
the  past.  It  was  a  prophecy,  a  type,  a  shadow. 
It  is,  as  I  shall  presently  show,  no  longer  bind- 
ing. But  if  we  think  there  are  no  lessons  to  be 
taught  us  by  the  history  of  it,  we  shall  strangely 
err.  For  the  mistake  of  the  Pharisees  has 
been  reproduced  in  Christian  times.  Their  one 
great  error  was  in  taking  shadow  for  substance  ; 
in  supposing  the  Sabbath  to  be  nothing  but  a 
twenty-four  hours'  day,  not  seeing  that  the  real 
Sabbath  is  eternal  in  the  heavens.  Perhaps  we 
have  made  a  similar  mistake.  They  thought  it 
was  the  seventh  day.  Perhaps  we  think  it  is 
the  first  day.  But  it  is  not  the  first.  It  was 
not  the  seventh.  The  seventh  was  a  type  of  it. 
The  first  may  be  a  promise  of  it.  But  the  real 
rest  is  unseen,  spiritual,  eternal. 

And  this  general  mistake  of  theirs  included, 
as  we  have  seen,  two  subordinate  errors.  This 
first :  thinking  that  it  was  an  earthly  day 
merely,  they  made  it  sometimes  a  formality, 
and  sometimes  a  superstition.  First  they  neg- 
lected it  and  violated  it.  Then  they  were  afraid 
of  it  and  worshipped  it. 


Use  and  Abuse  of  the  Jezoish  Sabbath.    171 

And  this  secondly  :  regarding  it  in  such  a 
narrow,  literal  way,  they  came  to  think  that 
they  were  made  for  it,  not  it  for  them  ;  that 
God  had,  of  his  arbitrary  will,  enjoined  it,  not 
for  their  use  and  interest,  but  for  his  own  ;  and 
that  their  obligation  to  observe  it  was  a  duty 
which  they  owed  to  him,  and  not  a  privilege 
conferred  upon  themselves.  Christ,  by  his 
right  use  of  the  day,  exposed  this  error.  He 
showed  them  that  their  interest  and  God's  inter- 
est were  not  antagonistic,  were  not  separate 
and  twain,  but  one.  God's  rest  was  their  rest. 
They  were  to  keep  the  day  to  him,  because  he 
had  given  it  to  them.  They  were  not  made  for 
it,  but  it  for  them.1 

This  was  the  true  idea  of  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath. It  has  seemed  necessary  to  draw  out 
this  idea,  and  to  distinguish  the  right  observ- 
ance of  the  day  from  the  abuse  of  it,  in  order 
that  we  may  be  ready  for  the  intelligent  appre- 
ciation of  our  weekly  Christian  festival.  For 
the  Lord's  Day  is  the  heir  of  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath.    It  has  displaced  it  throughout  the  Chris- 

1  Dr.  Hessey's  comment  on  this  important  verse  (Mark  ii.  27)  is 
interesting  and  forcible.     (See  Hessey,  p.  123.) 


172  The  Sabbath    Question. 

tian  world.  It  has  inherited  its  memories  and 
its  hopes.  It  has  been  treated  with  the  same 
abuses,  and  marked  by  the  same  errors.  To  the 
consideration  of  this  Christian  festival  we  must 
next  address  ourselves. 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      173 


IV. 

THE    LORD'S    DAY   A    PRIVILEGE. 

"8no  upon  tfje  first  oag  of  tfje  focefe,  foijm  tfje  oisctplcs 
came  togctljcr  to  break  brrao,  $aul  prcacrjcfl  unto  trjctn,  reaog 
io  Depart  on  trjc  morrofo;  anti  continued  fjts  speccfj  until  mtD- 
ntgrjt.  "  —  Acts  xx.  7. 

IT  is  from  such  slight  hints  as  that  afforded 
by  this  text,  that  we  get  what  imperfect 
knowledge  we  possess  concerning  the  life  and 
usages  of  the  early  Christians.  The  life  of 
Christ  himself  upon  the  earth  is  only  partially 
reported  :  although,  being  reported  by  four  dif- 
ferent biographers,  we  get  glimpses  of  it  from 
four  different  points  of  view  ;  and  so  the  record 
gives  forth  more  light,  as  a  diamond  does  when 
it  is  cut  with  facets.  But,  when  we  know  so 
little  of  the  life  of  the  Master,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  we  know  less  of  the  life  of  his  disciples. 
Concerning  these. first  pillars  in  the  Christian 
church,  and  concerning  the  great  work  which 


174  The  Sabbath   Question. 

was  given  them  to  do,  —  the  work  of  moulding 
the  institutions  of  Christianity,  and  denning 
and  constructing  its  theology,  —  the  authorita- 
tive record  is  very  incomplete.  The  book  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  the  hints  in  the 
various  letters  of  the  apostles,  are  the  only  in- 
spired sources  of  information  ;  and  even  from 
these  the  knowledge  on  these  points  has  to  be 
carefully  and  laboriously  dug  out,  like  precious 
metal  from  a  bed  of  ore.  Precisely  how  the 
first  Christian  churches  were  organized,  for 
example  ;  precisely  what  was  their  doctrinal 
belief  ;  precisely  what  were  their  religious 
usages  and  ordinances,  —  these  are  questions 
which  it  is  not  easy  authoritatively  to  answer. 
"  How  was  baptism  administered  ?  "  is  a  ques- 
tion which  divides  the  church  with  a  singular 
and  almost  hopeless  bitterness  of  division,  even 
at  the  present  day.  But  if  we  search  the  New 
Testament  for  explicit  directions  to  baptize  in 
this  or  that  way,  and  in  none  other,  we  can- 
not find  them.  Some  people  wonder  at  this. 
"  How  much  trouble  might  have  been  saved  to 
the  church,"  they  say,  "  what  wrangling,  what 
breaches    of    Christian    charity,    what    scandal, 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      175 

what  disunion,  might  have  been  prevented,  if 
in  some  one  of  the  Gospels,  or  in  some  one 
of  Paul's  epistles,  there  had  been  ten  words  of 
positive  commandment  on  this  subject !  "  But, 
search  the  whole  New  Testament  as  we  may, 
those  ten  words  of  positive  commandment 
cannot  be  found. 

These  are  illustrations  and  examples  of  one 
general  fact  which  needs  to  be  constantly  borne 
in  mind,  and  which  may  be  stated  as  follows  : 
The  kingdom  of  heaven  which  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  established  on  the  earth,  and  of  which  he 
himself  is  the  eternal  King,  is  an  invisible  and 
spiritual  kingdom.  It  is  within  men.  And  its 
force  and  operation  is  from  within,  outward.  It 
makes  its  appearance  on  the  earth  unarmed, 
unfurnished  with  worldly  resources.  It  brings 
with  it  no  laws  written  on  stone  tables,  or  on 
parchment  rolls,  or  on  paper  pages.  It  estab- 
lishes no  courts  to  minister  its  justice.  It 
erects  no  throne,  and  provides  no  sceptre  for 
the  sway  of  its  submissive  subjects.  It  is  not 
meat  nor  drink.  It  is  not  circumcision  nor 
uncircumcision.  It  is  not  observance  of  rites 
and    ordinances,    nor    is    it    non-observance    of 


176  The  Sabbath   Question. 

rites  and  ordinances.  It  may  use  them,  or  it 
may  refuse  them.  It  is  spiritual.  Righteous- 
ness, peace,  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  —  this  is 
the  kingdom.  Love,  —  this  is  the  essence  of 
it.  Trust,  —  this  is  the  condition  and  com- 
mencement of  it.  What  Christ  brought  from 
heaven  to  earth  was  not  an  institution  nor  a 
cluster  of  institutions  ;  not  a  law  nor  a  code 
of  laws  ;  nor  a  form,  nor  a  set  of  forms  ;  but 
a  spirit,  a  living  spirit,  a  divine  spirit,  even  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  eternal  Helper  and  Sanctifier, 
to  dwell  in  men,  moulding  them,  strengthen- 
ing them,  giving  them  life,  making  them,  and, 
through  them,  making  all  things  new  ! 

Therefore,  when  our  Lord  finished  the  work 
which  he  had  to  do  in  his  flesh,  and  ascended 
into  heaven,  he  left  after  him  no  organized 
church,  and,  I  had  almost  said,  no  instituted 
ordinances.  Baptism,  indeed  (which  was  al- 
ready practised  in  the  Jewish  church),  he 
sanctioned  as  a  fit  and  useful,  and  even,  com- 
monly, a  necessary  symbol  of  discipleship. 
And  the  Lord's  Supper,  too,  he  instituted  as 
at  once  a  symbol  and  a  means  of  the  com- 
munion of    his  saints  with  him,  and  one  with 


The  Lord 's  Day  a  Privilege.      1 7  7 

another.  But  these  two  exceptions  are  so  sim- 
ple as  scarcely  to  do  more  than  confirm  the 
rule.  He  left  no  churches  on  the  earth.  He 
left  disciples,  and  committed  to  them  the  organ- 
ization of  churches,  —  to  them,  guided  and  in- 
spired by  the  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  of  love. 
Questions  of  order,  matters  of  detail,  habits 
of  worship  and  of  Christian  living,  these  were 
all  things  of  Christian  expediency,  which  needed 
not  to  be  ordained  beforehand.  The  living 
Spirit  was  to  construct  its  body,  fashioning  it 
in  strength  and  beauty,  and  in  constant  growth 
of  perfectness. 

To  declare,  then,  as  it  seems  to  me  we  must 
honestly  declare,  that  we  can  find  no  command- 
ment in  the  New  Testament,  nor  indeed  in  the 
whole  Bible,  requiring  the  observance  of  a 
weekly  Sabbath  on  the  part  of  Christians, 
need  not  surprise  anybody.  You  can  find  no 
commandment  requiring  the  organization  of 
churches  after  a  given  form  ;  no  pattern  shown, 
as  there  was  to  Moses  in  the  mount,  after 
which  the  institutions  of  the  church  must  be 
constructed.  You  cannot  find  any  catalogue 
of  maxims  covering  cases  of  conscience,  obedi- 


178  The  Sabbath   Q?iestion. 

ence  to  which  is  a  test  of  discipleship.  Nay, 
more.  You  do  find  the  first  inspired  teachers 
of  the  church  expressly  disavowing  the  right 
of  anybody  to  impose  such  maxims  and  regu- 
lations upon  the  church,  to  require  the  observ- 
ance of  feasts  or  fasts,  to  compel  or  to  forbid 
any  outward  observance.  So  that  we  may  even 
say,  that  if  there  were  found  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment any  text  explicitly  requiring  the  observ- 
ance of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  for  example, 
as  a  holy  day,  that  text  would  be  in  such  mani- 
fest and  glaring  contrast  with  the  whole  spirit 
of  the  remaining  contents  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, that  its  spuriousness  would  be  prima 
facie  probable. 

But,  if  we  find  no  commandment  in  the  New 
Testament  which  fits  the  case,  we  surely  find 
none  in  the  Old.  We  do,  indeed,  find  there 
a  commandment  requiring  the  observance  of  a 
weekly  Sabbath  ;  but  it  is  addressed,  not  to  the 
Christian  church,  but  to  the  Jewish  church,  and 
is  obeyed  more  or  less  perfectly  by  the  Jew- 
ish people  to  this  day.  The  apostle  Paul  dis- 
tinctly, and  in  more  places  than  one,  rejects  the 
suggestion   that  that  law  is  obligatory  on   him  ; 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      179 

and  while  he  might  be  willing  to  keep  the 
weekly  Sabbath,  if  it  would  be  of  any  comfort 
to  his  brethren  to  have  him  do  so,  yet  when 
anybody  should  undertake  to  make  him  keep 
it,  or  to  insist  that  he  was  bound  to  keep  it,  he 
would  give  place  to  such  an  one  by  subjection, 
—  no,  not  for  an  hour.  All  the  energy  of  his 
manly  Christian  soul  resented  such  a  binding 
of  his  liberty  ;  and  he  shook  off  the  entangle- 
ment of  that  yoke.  I  do  not  see  how  any  fair 
interpretation  of  passages  in  Paul's  epistles  like 
those  which  I  read  this  morning  (such  as  Col. 
ii.  16 — hi.  11  ;  Rom.  xiv.  5,  6;  and  almost  the 
whole  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians),  can 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  he,  at  least,  regarded 
the  commandment  of  the  Sabbath  as  at  an 
end.1 

In  that  conclusion  the  whole  Christian 
church  has  in  practice,  and  for  the  most  part 
in  theory,  acquiesced.  In  practice,  I  say  :  for, 
if  the  fourth  commandment  is  obligatory,  it  is 
the  seventh  day  which  it  enjoins ;  and  the 
Christian  church,  with  insignificant  exceptions, 
has    never    observed    the    seventh    day.      And 

1  See  especially  Alford's  long  note  on  Col.  ii.  16,  17. 


180  The  Sabbath   Question. 

in  theory  :  for  although  some  theologians  be- 
fore the  Reformation  regarded  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath  as  still  in  force,1  only  contriving  in 
some  illogical  and  unauthorized  way  to  twist 
it  from  the  seventh  day  to  the  first ;  and, 
although  other  theologians  in  the  reformed 
church  (not  all  of  them,  by  any  means,  but 
some  of  them)  have  taken  the  same  ground, 
—  yet,  on  the  whole,  the  verdict  of  the  church 
has  been  most  clearly  in  agreement  with  the 
verdict  of   the  apostle  Paul. 

I  confess,  then,  with  the  utmost  frankness 
and  honesty,  that  I  can  find  no  commandment, 
either  in  the  New  Testament  or  in  the  Old, 
obliging  me  to  keep  a  weekly  Sabbath.  Not 
in  the  New :  for  there  I  am  distinctly  told  to 
"let  no  man  judge  me"  in  respect  of  a  holy 
day,  ...  or  of  the  Sabbaths  ;  not  only  am  I 
not  obliged  to  keep  them,  but  I  am  to  resist 
those  who  would  so  oblige  me.  And  not  in 
the  Old  ;  for  there  I  find  a  commandment  ad- 
dressed   to   Jews    and    not    to    Christians,   and 

1  There  is  some  doubtful  trace  of  this  opinion,  as  early  as  the 
third  century,  in  Tertullian  ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  sixth  century  that 
it  became  distinctly  and  formally  declared.  See  Hessey's  Third 
Lecture,  especially  pp.  77-96. 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      181 

requiring,  if  it  requires  any  thing,  the  observ- 
ance of  the  seventh  day  and  not  the  first. 

It  cannot  be  said  in  reply  to  this,  that  the 
law  of  the  Sabbath,  being  a  part  of  what  is 
known  as  the  Ten  Commandments,  distinguished 
by  a  peculiar  dignity  from  the  rest  of  the  law, 
and  graven  expressly  upon  stone  tables,  remains 
permanent  and  binding  upon  all  men,  though 
the  ceremonial  law  is  passed  away.  To  say  this 
would  be  to  beg-  the  question  ;  to  say  this  would 
be  expressly  to  gainsay  the  words  of  the  apos- 
tle Paul  already  quoted.  If  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath,  as  being  a  part  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, had  been  permanently  binding,  Paul 
would  hardly  have  taken  pains  to  make  obedi- 
ence to  it  optional,  as  he  distinctly  does.  Be- 
sides, where  do  we  find  any  exception  of  these 
Ten  Commandments  from  the  acknowledged  ful- 
filment or  supersedure  of  the  law  by  Christian- 
ity ?  It  is  the  law  as  a  whole  that  is  superseded. 
Are  we,  then,  to  be  told  that  this,  by  far  the 
most  important  part  of  it,  is  still  in  force  ? 

But  some  man  will  say  that  I  am  proving  too 
much  ;  that  on  this  principle,  and  if  the  Ten 
Commandments  are  superseded,  then    I    leave 


1 82  The  Sabbath   Question. 

men  free  to  steal,  to  kill,  to  commit  adultery,  to 
covet,  and  so  on.  To  which  the  obvious  answer 
is,  that  men  are  not  left  free  to  do  these  things  ; 
but  it  is  because  they  are  in  conflict  with  the 
Spirit,  not  because  they  are  in  conflict  with 
the  commandment.  The  law  was  superseded 
by  the  Spirit.  But  even  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  there  is  also  a  law,  the  law  of 
liberty,  the  law  of  love.  And  there  are  some 
things  on  the  stone  tables,  and  some  things  in 
the  parchment-books  of  Moses,  which  men 
everywhere  and  always  are  bound  to  observe. 
But  why  are  they  bound  to  observe  them  ? 
Because  they  are  graven  on  stone  or  written  on 
parchment  ?  No.  But  they  were  graven  on 
stone  or  written  on  parchment  because  men  are 
bound  by  the  Spirit  to  observe  them.  I  must 
not  steal.  Why  must  I  not  steal  ?  Because  it 
is  so  written  in  the  Jewish  law  ?  No.  But  it  is 
so  written  in  the  Jewish  law,  and  in  every 
other  law,  because  I  must  not  steal.  It  is 
wrong  to  kill.  Why  is  it  wrong  to  kill  ?  Be- 
cause the  sixth  commandment  forbids  killing  ? 
No.  But  the  sixth  commandment  forbids  kill- 
ing because  it  is  wrong  to  kill.     My  argument 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      183 

is  not  dangerous.     It  does  not  prove  too  much. 
And  when  I  say  that  Christianity  superseded 
the   Jewish   law,   I   mean,  just  as  Paul  meant, 
that  it  superseded  the  whole  of  the  Jewish  law. 
I  may  use  portions  of   that  law  as   a  valuable 
and  more  or  less  perfect  summary  of  universal 
moral  duty.     But  I  may  not  argue  that  this  or 
that  is  universal  moral  duty,  merely  because  I 
find  it  in  that  law.    I  say  that  it  is  safe  to  forbid 
stealing  by  an  appeal  to  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 
It  is  safe  to  forbid  covetousness  by  an  appeal  to 
that  love  which  is  the  living  power  of  his  king- 
dom.    It  is  safe  to  ground  all  duty  here,  to  rest 
all  obligation  here.     If  I  can  make  an  argument 
for  a  weekly  Sabbath  on  this   ground,  then  I 
can  defend  it.     If  I  cannot,  then  my  right  to 
insist   upon    it  must  be  abandoned.     If    I  can 
show  that   the    Spirit    of   Christ  prompts  any 
such  observance ;  if  I  can  show  that  love,  which 
is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  — love  to  our  God 
and  Father,  love  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  love 
to  our  brethren  for  whom  he  died,  love  to  our 
own    souls  which   he   has   purchased  with   his 
precious   blood, —if,  I    say,  I    can    show   that 
love,  which  is  the  one  great  law,  the  only  law 


184  The  Sabbath    Question. 

of  Christ,  constrains  us  to  this  usage,  or  even 
that  it  finds  a  natural  and  helpful  expression  in 
this  usage,  —  then  I  will  urge  it  with  all  Chris- 
tian zeal  and  by  all  fit  methods.  But,  unless  I 
can  show  this,  I  cannot  urge  it  upon  any  man, 
any  more  than  I  could  urge  the  feast  of  taber- 
nacles or  the  rite  of  circumcision.1 

I  know  that  it  will  seem  to  some  that  I  am 
taking  much  unnecessary  trouble  on  myself, 
and  that  I  am  going  by  a  circuitous  and  difficult 
course  to  my  result,  when  there  is  the  easy  and 
short  cut  of  the  fourth  commandment  at  my 
service.  But  I  have  lived  long  enough  already 
to  see  the  mischief  of  supporting  a  good  cause 
by  bad  reasons,  of  defending  truth  by  false 
argument,  of  risking  battles  in  the  maintenance 
of  right  by  the  use  of  wrong  methods  and  by 
making  a  stand  upon  untenable  positions.  Of 
this  error  I  desire  not  knowingly  to  be  guilty. 
I  desire,  not  merely  to  inculcate  Christian  truth, 
but  to  do  it,  so  far  as  may  be,  with  reasonable 
justification  and  explanation  of  it.  And  I  know 
that  it  is  never  wise,  that  it  is  never  right,  to 
win  a  temporary  victory  for  truth  by  winking 
out  of  sight  an  error. 

1  See  note  at  the  end  of  this  sermon. 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      185 

Therefore,  in  this  and  subsequent  discourses, 
I  rest  my  defence  of  our  observance  of  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  not  on  the  fourth  command- 
ment, but  on  the  law  of  love,  on  the  Spirit  of 
Christ.  And  after  this  long  digression  I  come 
back  to  point  out  what  significance  the  text 
has  in  this  discussion,  and  what  bearing  on 
the  important  argument  which  I  have  taken  in 
hand. 

It  is,  as  I  said  at  the  outset,  one  of  the  very 
few  passages  in  the  New  Testament  which 
indicate  that  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
marked  by  the  first  disciples  with  any  special 
observance.  There  is,  as  I  say,  no  command- 
ment requiring  its  observance;  but  is  there, 
then,  any  evidence  that  the  observance  of  it 
was  a  matter  of  general  Christian  usage  ?  This 
text  helps  to  answer  the  last  question,  and 
bears  somewhat  important  testimony  to  the  fact 
of  such  usage.  The  argument  from  it,  in  a 
word,  is  this  :  — 

The  apostle  Paul  and  his  travelling  compan- 
ions, going  from  Philippi  to  Ephesus,  and  so 
back  from  their  missionary  labors  into  Syria, 
came,  after  a  voyage  of  five  days  from  his  last 


1 86  The  Sabbath   Qicestion. 

port,  to  Troas,  where  a  little  church  of  Chris- 
tian disciples  had  been  gathered.  Here,  says 
the  story,  told  by  one  of  the  party,  "we  abode 
seven  days,"  —  the  seven  days  closing  with 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  —  as  if  they  had 
been  waiting  for  the  first  day  of  the  week  to 
come  for  some  special  reason.  What  was  the 
reason  ?  "  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
when  we  came  together  to  break  bread"  (the 
language  seems  to  indicate  an  habitual  act,  — 
as  if  it  were  a  thing  of  course  that  they  should 
meet  for  worship  and  fellowship  on  that  day), 
"Paul  preached  unto  them,  ready  to  depart" 
(or  being  about  to  depart)  "on  the  morrow," 
—  apparently  having  prolonged  his  stay  espe- 
cially for  the  sake  of  spending  Sunday  with  the 
church,  as  if  he  knew  that  then  would  be  the 
best  of  all  opportunities  for  meeting  them. 
Full  of  zeal  and  of  enjoyment  of  their  compan- 
ionship, he  continued  his  discourse  till  mid- 
night, and  even  prolonged  the  communion 
season  till  daybreak.  And  so  he  departed,  — 
commencing  his  journey  before  the  Sunday 
had  expired  ;  for  the  day,  of  course,  was  counted 
from  sunset  to  sunset.     Two  facts,  then,  seem 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      187 

taught  by  this  incident.  First,  that  the  day 
was  regarded  as  a  day  of  religious  privilege, 
even  in  apostolic  days,  and  was  sanctioned  by 
apostolic  example  as  an  opportunity  of  religious 
assembly  for  worship  and  fellowship ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, that  it  was  not  regarded  with  any  such 
strictness  of  obligation  as  that  the  apostle  was 
hindered  from  commencing  his  journey  upon 
it.     Both  of  these  facts  are  important. 

But  why  was  it  regarded  as  a  day  of  especial 
religious    privilege?     The   answer   is    obvious. 
Already  the  division  of  time  into  weeks  of  seven 
days  existed ;  and  the  fitness  and  convenience 
of  this  division  were  so  great  that  it  was  never 
to  be  abandoned,  but  rather  to  become  universal. 
Indeed,  although  the  week  of  seven  days  comes 
to  us  and  to  the  world  from  the  Hebrew  prac- 
tice, it  may  even  be  said  to  be  a  natural  divis- 
ion of    time,  founded  upon  the  phases  of    the 
moon.     At   any  rate,  it   is    a  division  of   time 
which  has  proved  its  fitness  and    convenience 
by  the  test  of  use  ;  and  all  efforts  which  have 
been    made    to    improve    upon   it  —  to   make  a 
week  of   ten  days,  for  example,  as    in   France 
during  the  time  of   her  revolution  —  have  sig- 


188  The  Sabbath   Question. 

nally  failed.  I  say,  then,  that  the  week  of  seven 
days  existed  in  the  Jewish  world,  out  of  which 
the  first  Christians  were  gathered.  Any  great 
and  memorable  event,  any  event  of  singular 
and  permanent  gladness  or  of  deep  and  abiding 
sorrow,  occurring  on  the  first  day  of  any  week, 
then,  or  on  the  fifth  day  of  any  week,  would  be 
remembered,  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  by  nat- 
ural and  inevitable  association,  when  the  first 
day  or  the  fifth  clay  of  the  next  week  would 
come  around.  And,  if  the  event  thus  connected 
with  that  day  was  one  of  importance  enough, 
it  would  be  still  remembered  when  the  next 
week  came,  and  when  the  next  came,  and  the 
next.  And  if,  perhaps,  this  great  event  con- 
nected with  it  was  one  of  which  the  grandeur 
and  significance  grew  no  less  but  rather  greater 
as  the  weeks  and  months  and  years  rolled  by ; 
if  it  should  prove  to  be  an  event  so  sublime, 
so  transcendent,  so  full  of  gladness  and  promise 
and  hope,  that  time  could  take  away  nothing 
from  its  meaning  and  glory,  but  could  only  add 
to  it ;  if,  also,  it  were  an  event  which  pointed 
forward  all  the  time,  as  well  as  backward, 
requiring    to    be    cherished,    not    as  a  memory 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      189 

only,  but  also,  and  even  more  constantly,  as 
a  prophecy, — then,  as  the  day  came  around, 
each  weekly  observance  of  it  would  make  the 
next  more  sure  and  more  sacred,  till  the  usage 
should  become  so  venerable,  so  holy,  so  pre- 
cious, that  to  touch  it  with  the  interference  of 
rude  hands  would  be  a  sacrilege  intolerable. 
And  when  the  day  had  won  such  sanctity  as 
this,  and  reached  such  singular  pre-eminence  ; 
when  it  had  come  to  be  so  valued  and  beloved, 
by  reason  of  its  clustering  associations,  by  all 
Christian  souls  ;  when  with  unanimous  consent 
the  church  of  Christ,  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  constantly  inspired  and  guided  by  his  living 
Spirit,  had  made  the  day  a  festival,  —  I  think 
it  would  be  as  much  ordained  of  God  as  if  the 
ordinance  had  been  written  on  the  overarching 
skies,  or  graven  on  the  everlasting  hills.  Is 
not  the  voice  of  the  Christian  people,  in  some 
true  and  proper  sense,  the  voice  of  God  ? 

Thus  I  indicate  the  line  of  argument  to  be 
employed.  And  now,  very  briefly,  let  us  follow 
it  out.  We  all  know  what  was  the  one  great 
event  by  which  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
made   illustrious   forever.       It    was   the    resur- 


190  The  Sabbath   Question. 

rection  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  most  sub- 
lime event  in  human  history,  the  event  which 
was  the  very  keystone  of  that  divine  arch  of 
promise  by  which  the  ruined  world  is  spanned. 
On  the  first  day  of  the  week,  he  rose  again 
from  the  dead.  Do  you  suppose  that  group  of 
sorrowing  disciples  who  had  spent  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  in  such  depths  of  wondering  despair, 
whose  festival  of  rest  had  been  turned,  that 
week,  into  such  weary  gloom,  whose  last  hope 
of  the  rest  which  Moses  had  spoken  of,  which 
Joshua  had  prefigured,  which  David  had  sung 
of,  had  flickered  and  gone  out  upon  that  gloomy 
seventh  day,  —  do  you  think,  I  say,  that  they 
could  ever  possibly  forget  upon  what  day  it 
was  that  there  burst  in  upon  their  darkened 
souls  the  sudden  and  bewildering  truth  which 
turned  their  darkness  into  day,  which  kindled 
to  new  brightness  the  extinguished  flame  of 
hope,  —  which  re-awakened  all  the  expectation 
of  a  promised  rest,  —  which  opened  up  the 
very  heavens  to  them  in  an  infinite  vista  of 
glory  ?  Could  they  ever  forget  what  day  it 
was  that  turned  their  sorrow  into  a  joy  that  no 
man  could  thenceforth  take  from    them  ;    that 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      191 

made  the  most  timid  and   distrustful  of   them 
resolutely  bold,  so  that  they  went  everywhere 
preaching  "  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  ; "  that 
furnished  them  thenceforward  with  their  rally- 
ing cry,  their  most  blessed  gospel,  their  most 
resistless  argument?     Could   they  forget  what 
day  this  was  ?     Surely  they  could  not  forget  it. 
They  did   not  forget  it.     From  the  very  first, 
there  are  indications  that  they  marked  it  with 
peculiar  emphasis.      All   the   evangelists   take 
pains  to  mention  it  as  the  day  of  resurrection. 
In  John's  Gospel  it  is  recorded  that  the  Lord 
appeared  to  his  disciples  at  their  assembly  on 
the  first  recurrence  of  the  resurrection  day,  — 
that  is,  on  the  eighth  day  after  the  day  on  which 
he  rose,  —  marking  it  thus  by  peculiar  honor. 
So  we  find,  in  this  text,  the  assemblage  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week  spoken  of  as  if  it  were  al- 
ready a  Christian  usage.     So  elsewhere  we  find 
the  apostle  Paul  advising  that  the  first  clay  of 
the  week  be  used  for  charitable  purposes.    So  we 
find  the  apostle  John  speaking  of  "the  Lord's 
Day  "  as  a  recognized  day,  on  which  he  was  "in 
the  Spirit."  l     Such  hints  as  these  we  find  in 

1  See  Alf ord's  interesting  note  on  Rev.  i.  10. 


192  The  Sabbath   Question 

the  New  Testament,  that,  from  the  very  first,  it 
was  impossible  for  the  first  day  of  the  week  to 
come  without  bringing  to  Christian  men  mem- 
ories of  sacred  gladness,  and  welcome,  and 
beautiful  prophecies  of  hope.  It  pointed  back- 
ward to  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  —  a  fact 
which  only  seemed  to  grow  more  glorious  as, 
in  the  process  of  the  weeks  and  years,  it  grew 
more  distant.  It  pointed  forward  to  their  own 
resurrection,  —  a  fact  which  grew  more  wel- 
come and  more  real  as,  in  the  process  of  the 
weeks  and  years,  it  came  more  near. 

Such  hints  as  these,  I  say,  we  find  in  the 
New  Testament,  —  such  hints  as  these,  and 
only  these.  I  believe  I  have  enumerated  all 
of  them.  The  verse  which  I  have  taken  for 
a  text  is  one  of  the  strongest  of  them  all, 
perhaps  the  very  strongest. 

But  now,  if  any  man  will  say  that  these  few 
scattered  hints,  if  they  are  all  that  the  New 
Testament  affords,  furnish  a  very  flimsy  basis 
on  which  to  rest  the  obligation  to  observe  the 
first  day  of  the  week  as  a  distinctly  holy  day, 
I  quite  agree  with  him.  They  do  furnish  a 
most  insufficient  ground  on  which  to  rest  that 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      193 

obligation.  I  rest  no  such  obligation  on  them. 
I  hesitate  to  rest  such  obligation  anywhere.  I 
do  not  dare  to  use  that  word  "obligation,"  lest 
I  expose  myself  to  the  censure  of  the  apostle 
Paul.  If  I  go  about  obliging  people  to  observe 
the  first  day,  or  the  seventh  day,  or  any  other 
day,  I  seem  to  hear  the  stern  voice  of  that  great 
apostle  saying  over  again  to  me  what  he  said 
once  to  the  churches  of  Galatia  :  "  How  turn 
ye  again  to  the  weak  and  beggarly  elements 
whereunto  ye  desire  again  to  be  in  bondage  ? 
Ye  observe  days  and  months  and  times  and 
years.  I  am  afraid  of  you,  lest  I  have  be- 
stowed upon  you  labor  in  vain."  I  do  not 
ground  upon  these  texts,  I  cannot  ground  upon 
these  texts,  an  obligation.  I  cannot  find  in 
them,  or  in  any  others,  a  commandment.  But 
I  do  find  in  them  a  warrant  for  the  privilege, 
a  vindication  of  the  right,  to  dignify  the  Lord's 
Day,  and  to  hallow  it.  If  I  can  make  men  see 
the  worth  of  this  privilege,  if  I  can  make  men 
feel  the  value  of  this  right,  then  I  can  even 
urge  it  on  them  as  a  duty.  For,  in  Christ's 
kingdom,  privilege  is  duty,  and  duty  privilege. 
To    his  disciples,  right  involves  responsibility. 


194  The  Sabbath   Question. 

The  right  of  suffrage,  for  example,  involves,  as 
I  have  more  than  once  insisted  from  this  pulpit, 
the  duty  of  suffrage.  So  the  privilege  of  rest 
becomes  to  weary  men  the  duty  of  rest.  So 
the  right  to  celebrate  the  weekly  festival  of  the 
Lord's  resurrection,  and  the  weekly  prophecy 
and  promise  of  our  own,  devolves  on  tired 
and  burdened  men,  immersed  in  care,  and  con- 
stantly surrounded  by  temptation  and  distract- 
ing evils,  the  responsibility  of  celebrating  it 
with  worship  and  repose.  If  the  opportunity 
is  given,  —  a  day  of  religious  opportunity,  — 
the  opportunity  must  be  redeemed,1  "  because 
the  days  are  evil." 

Coming  at  it  thus  from  the  side  of  privilege, 
not  as  Jews,  who  still  are  bounden  by  the 
law,  but  rather  as  Christians  to  whom  Christ 
has  given  the  liberty  of  sons,  the  argument  for 
the  Lord's  Day  begins  to  take  on  shape  and 
definiteness.  That  this  is  the  true  way  to 
come  at  it,  I  have  no  doubt.  That  this  is  the 
way  in  which  the  Christian  church  came  at  it, 
is  a  matter  of  historic  fact,  and  is  even  capable 
of  historic  proof. 

1  Eph.  v.  16;  where  "redeeming  the  time"  is,  literally,  "rescu- 
ing thf  onporfrnitv." 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      195 

For  some  years  after  the  resurrection  of  our 
Lord,  the  Christian  disciples  were  largely  Jews, 
who  had  been  trained  under  the  law  of  Moses, 
and  who    had    come    to   love   the    institutions, 
rites,  and  ordinances    of   the    Hebrew  church. 
To  such,  the  immediate  and  complete  abandon- 
ment of   their  Jewish    customs  was    not   easy 
nor  desirable.     If   there  were    any  who    could 
not  see  their  way  clear  to  give  up  the  rite  of 
circumcision,  they  might  keep  the  rite  of  cir- 
cumcision  for  themselves    and    for   their   chil- 
dren ;    only    they    must    not    impose    it    upon 
others  who  could   see  no    reason    for  it.     Just 
as   nowadays  we    say  to    any  who   cannot   see 
their  way  clear  to  any  form  of  baptism  except 
immersion,    Very   well,  you   may  employ  that 
form   if   you   desire,  for  yourselves  ;   only  you 
must  not  try  to   make   us   use   it,  if   our  con- 
science leaves  us  free  to  try  some  other  mode. 
So  with  regard  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath.     There 
were  many  who  could  not  give  it  up.     It  was 
a  privilege  which  they  could  not  bear  to  sur- 
render.    It  was  a   custom  which    they  had  so 
long  employed,  from  childhood,  always,  every- 
where, that  they  could  not  drop  it.     Very  well, 


196  The  Sabbath    Question. 

then,  said  the  apostle,  keep  it.  "  He  that  re- 
gardeth  the  day  regardeth  it  unto  the  Lord." 
But  do  not  let  him  say  to  his  brother  Chris- 
tian, who  was  perhaps  brought  up  as  a  heathen, 
and  who  has  no  prejudice  nor  association  nor 
preference  connected  with  the  weekly  Sabbath, 
or  who  is  a  more  instructed  Jew,  and  recog- 
nizes that  the  Jewish  Sabbath  is  no  longer 
binding,  —  let  him  not  say  to  such  an  one, 
"  You  must  keep  this  seventh  day  with  me." 
"  Why  dost  thou  judge  thy  brother  ? "  cries  the 
apostle  :  "  He  that  regardeth  not  the  day,  to 
the  Lord  he  doth  not  regard  it." 

So  things  went  on  for  a  while.  The  Jewish 
Christians,  many  of  them,  keeping  the  weekly 
Sabbath,  the  Gentile  Christians  keeping  it  not. 
Meantime,  every  week  the  first  day  came  right 
after  the  seventh  ;  and  the  associations  of  the 
first  day  grew,  each  week,  more  glad,  more 
glorious,  more  holy.  More  and  more  it  was 
felt  to  be  a  privilege  to  commemorate  upon 
that  day  the  sublime  fact  of  the  Lord's  resur- 
rection. More  and  more  it  came  to  be  the 
custom,  both  of  Jewish  Christians  and  of  Gen- 
tile Christians,  to  meet  for  worship  and  for  fel- 


The  Lord*s  Day  a  Privilege.      197 

lowship  upon  that  first  day  of  the  week.  And 
thus  it  befell  that  presently  the  Jewish  Chris- 
tians found  that  they  were  really  observing  in 
each  week  two  holy  days  instead  of  one.  It 
was  inevitable  that  presently  the  sanctity  of 
one  of  them  must  wane.  Many  of  the  early 
Christians  were  slaves ;  almost  all  were  poor 
men,  working  men.  Two  days  out  of  a  week 
could  not  be  spared.  It  was  an  unnatural  pro- 
portion. It  wrought  inconveniences  of  various 
sorts.  In  this  busy  world,  not  more  than  one- 
seventh  of  the  time  can  be  withdrawn  for 
festivals,  without  disordering  society.  Easily 
enough,  then,  nay,  inevitably,  when  the  Jewish 
Christians  were  brought  to  the  point,  and 
forced  to  choose  which  of  these  two  succes- 
sive days  they  would  surrender,  they  gave  up 
the  Jewish  day.  They  found  that  already  the 
festival  of  the  Lord's  resurrection  had  so  strong- 
a  hold  upon  them,  that  they  could  not  bear  to 
give  that  up.  Besides,  by  this  time  the  Jew- 
ish Christians,  who  at  first  were  the  most 
numerous,  had  begun  to  be  outnumbered,  and 
the  Gentile  Christians,  with  their  broader,  truer 
views,  had  gained  deserved  ascendency. 


198  The  Sabbath    Question. 

I  could  cite  quotations,  if  there  were  time, 
and  if  it  were  needful,  from  the  very  earliest 
Christian  writers  after  the  apostolic  age,  to 
verify  this  historical  assertion.  Among  these 
are  Ignatius  and  Justin  Martyr,1  who  lived  so 
close  to  apostolic  times  that  they  might  even 
have  known  the  last  of  the  apostles  personally. 
A  passage  attributed  to  Ignatius  (which,  how- 
ever, is  probably  spurious)  enjoins  the  keeping, 
both  of  Saturday  and  Sunday,  but  gives  a 
marked  preference  to  Sunday,  as  "the  Lord's 
Day,  as  a  festival,  the  queen  and  chief  of  all 
the  days."  But  there  is  another  version  (con- 
fessedly authentic)  of  the  same  passage ;  and  in 
this  the  writer  dissuades  from  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  urges  a  life  "according  to 
the  Lord's  ; "  2  the  inference  being,  of  course, 
that  the  practice  of  the  church  at  that  day  was 
not  settled  and  uniform.  Some  Christians  kept 
the  Sabbath;  some  observed  the  Lord's  Day, 
and  Ignatius  was  among  the  latter.  And  Justin 
says,  that  "  Sunday  is  the  day  on  which  we  all 

1  Ignatius  died  A.D.  107;  Justin  died  A.D.  164. 

2  That  is,  "according  to  the  Lord's  life,"  as  some  interpret;  or, 
as  others  interpret,  "according  to  the  Lord's  Day." 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      199 

hold  our  common  assembly,"  the  chief  reason 
for  it  being  that  on  that  day  "Jesus  Christ  our 
Saviour  rose  from  the  dead."  I  cite  these  two 
writers  simply  as  representing  the  spirit  of  the 
Christian  church  upon  this  point  during  the 
first  centuries  of  its  history.  I  need  not  multi- 
ply citations. 

There  is  not  time  to-day  to  prosecute  the 
argument ;  and,  if  to  any  one  it  seems  as  yet 
incomplete,  I  pray  him  to  remember  that  it 
does  not  claim  to  be  complete,  and  ask  him  to 
reserve  his  judgment  till  it  shall  be  finished. 
Two  things  only  at  this  point  I  beg  him  to  con- 
sider. 

First,  If  it  seems  to  him,  as  possibly  it 
may  seem  to  some,  that  the  event  which  this 
first  day  of  the  week  commemorates  is  scarcely 
so  sublime  or  so  important  as  to  justify  it  in 
superseding  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day, 
let  him  look  to  it  whether  there  is  not  some- 
thing wrong  in  his  theology.  It  did  not  seem 
so  to  the  apostles,  nor  to  the  first  disciples 
whom  they  gathered.  One  difference  between 
the  apostolic  age  and  ours  is  just  here  evident. 
To  them  the  resurrection  was  of  all  the  facts  in 


230  The  Sabbath    Question. 

Christian  history  the  most  illustrious.  To  some 
of  us  it  is  of  no  more  than  second-rate  impor- 
tance. Is  there  not  something  wrong  here  ? 
Paul  thought  of  Christ  as  of  him  "who  died, 
yea,  rather  who  is  risen  again."  I  have  some- 
times feared  that  we  were  suffering  from  some 
disproportion  in  the  order  of  our  doctrines  con- 
cerning the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  the 
doctrinal  significance  which  we  attach  to  the 
sacrificial  death  of  Jesus  had  been  somehow 
allowed  to  overshadow  and  obscure  the  glorious 
meaning  of  his  resurrection.  Is  it  not  possible 
to  linger  so  long  by  the  cross  and  by  the  sepul- 
chre as  partly  to  deprive  one's  self  of  the  glori- 
ous hopes  and  comforting  assurances  that  attach 
themselves  to  the  rising  again  from  the  dead  ? 
May  not  our  Christian  faith  have  been  too  much 
in  a  dead  Christ,  or  rather,  not  enough  in  a 
living  Christ  ?  I  have  seen  men  stand  at  the 
sepulchre  weeping,  to  whom  I  have  longed  to 
say,  "  He  is  not  here  :  he  is  risen."  These  are 
grave  considerations.  But  if  it  seems  to  us 
that  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  is  not  of  suffi- 
cient importance  to  justify  the  surrender  of  the 
seventh-day    festival    and    the    introduction    of 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      201 

the  first  day  in  its  place,  let  us  find  out  whether 
our  theology  is  not  in  need  of  some  adjust- 
ment.    This  is  the  first  point. 

Secondly  1  If  there  is  any  man  to  whom  this 
first  day  of  the  week  comes,  not  as  a  day  of 
Christian  privilege,  but  as  a  day  of  burdensome 
obligation,  or  as  a  day  without  significance,  let 
him  ask  whether  something  more  than  his  the- 
ology is  not  at  fault,  whether  his  religion  is  not 
a  failure.  If,  when  the  day  which  celebrates 
the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  returns,  it  brings 
no  meaning  to  you  or  to  me ;  if,  as  it  points 
backward  to  the  sacred  memories  that  cluster 
around  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  it  stirs  no 
thrill  of  gratitude  in  you  and  me ;  if  we  do  not 
spring  responsive  to  its  summons  to  give  thanks 
to  him  "who  died,  yea  rather,  who  is  risen 
again,"  —  then  we  may  be  sure  that  there  is 
something  wrong  in  us.  Is  it  possible  that 
Christ's  resurrection  is  nothing  to  us  ?  But 
surely  it  ought  to  be  something  to  us.  It  is  the 
earnest  of  our  own  immortality,  the  promise  of 
our  own  resurrection.  And  the  same  day  which 
points  backward  to  the  one  points  forward  to  the 
other.     But  perhaps  the  thought  of   your  own 


202  The  Sabbath   Question. 

resurrection,  the  assurance  of  your  own  immor- 
tality, has  no  attractiveness  to  you.  Perhaps 
you  give  no  heed  to  it,  take  no  thought  of  it. 
Perhaps,  even,  it  is  an  unwelcome  thought  to 
you,  filling  you,  when  it  comes  unsummoned, 
with  gloomy  doubts,  harassing  you  with  awful 
terrors.  If  this  is  so,  men  and  brethren,  if  this 
is  so  with  any  of  us,  be  sure  that  there  is  some- 
thing deeper  than  mere  theological  error  in  us  ; 
that  it  is  not  merely  intellectual  ignorance  and 
disorder  that  ails  us  ;  that  it  is  a  disordered  and 
corrupt  heart.  I  charge  you,  therefore,  breth- 
ren, to  beware  of  such  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief 
toward  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  lest,  a  promise 
being  left  us  of  entering  into  his  rest,  of  sharing 
his  immortality,  and  knowing  the  power  of  his 
resurrection,  any  of  us  shall  seem  to  come  short 
of  it.1 

1  The  custom  of  appealing  to  the  Decalogue  to  sanction  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Lord's  Day  seems  to  have  grown  up  within  the 
Roman  church,  in  an  age  not  remarkable  for  enlightenment  and 
intellectual  vigor.  The  growth  of  this  practice  has  been  sketched 
with  some  detail  by  recent  English  writers,  especially  by  Dr.  Hessey 
(in  his  third  lecture),  and  by  Dr.  Reichel  (quoted  by  Cox,  vol.  ii.  pp. 
380-384).  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  view  of  the  fourth  com- 
mandment which  is  taken  in  this  and  the  following  sermons,  has  the 
greatest  and  most  authoritative  names  in  church  history  upon  its  side. 


The  Lord's  Day  a  Privilege.      203 

To  those  of  us  who  have  been  used  to  insist  that  the  Decalogue  is  still 
obligatory,  and  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  still  in  force,  the  writings,  even  of 
Luther  and  of  Calvin,  must  seem  loose  and  perilous;  while  the  whole 
catalogue  of  German  scholars,  almost  without  exception,  the  devout 
and  evangelical  as  well  as  the  rationalistic,  give  one  unbroken  testi- 
mony in  the  same  direction.  Not  less  emphatic  is  the  opinion  of  the 
most  accomplished  English  exegetes,  like  Alford ;  and  of  men  like 
Whately,  and  Thomas  Arnold,  and  Frederick  Robertson,  and  a  host 
of  others.  Very  significant,  also,  is  the  fact  that  devout  scholars  on 
the  continent  of  Europe,  recognizing  the  superior  excellence  of  the 
Lord's  Day  as  observed  in  America,  are  urging  the  introduction  of  our 
practice,  while  they  continue  to  condemn  our  theory. 


204  The  Sabbath   Question, 


V. 

THE    LORD'S    DAY    HONORABLE. 

"JFor  if  tfjat  tofjtcfj  is  Done  afoag  foas  glorious,  tnucfj  more 
tfjat  fofjicfj  remainrtf)  is  glorious."  — 2  Cor.  iii.  11. 

IN  the  sermon  which  I  preached  a  week  ago, 
we  passed  from  the  discussion  of  the  Jew- 
ish Sabbath  to  the  examination  of  the  Christian 
festival  of  the  Lord's  Day.  I  trust  that  it  was 
made  sufficiently  evident,  in  the  course  of  that 
sermon,  that  these  two  days  are  not  the  same, 
but  different  in  many  respects.  Before  we  rest 
from  this  discussion,  I  desire  to  acknowledge, 
that  in  certain  other  respects  there  is  important 
similarity  between  them  also ;  but  the  points  of 
similarity  and  comparison  will  be  better  appre- 
ciated if  the  points  of  difference  and  contrast 
shall  be  first  and  fully  recognized. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  I  frankly  dis- 
claimed any  wish  to  rest  the  observance  of  our 
Christian  festival    upon    the   fourth    command- 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.        205 

ment,  and  even  that  I  was  at  some  pains  to 
show  why  that  commandment  could  not  prop- 
erly be  quoted  as  applying  to  this  observance  : 
because  it  was  a  Jewish  statute,  not  a  Christian 
one ;  because,  however  excellent  and  admira- 
ble, however  august  in  its  enactment  and  divine 
in  its  authority,  it  still  was  local,  transient,  par- 
tial, and  has  been  superseded  by  the  universal, 
permanent,  and  perfect  spirit  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  I  know  that  it  will  seem  to  some  a 
shorter  and  easier  way  to  call  this  Lord's  Day 
the  Sabbath  day,  and  to  invoke  the  sanction 
of  the  statute  written  on  stone  tables  to  sus- 
tain the  observance  of  it.  I  know  that  this 
may  even  seem  a  stronger  ground  on  which  to 
rest  the  observance,  because  it  has  the  thunders 
of  the  fiery  mountain  back  of  it,  and  because 
(I  say  it  sorrowfully)  the  stone  of  Sinai  some- 
times seems  to  our  dull  senses  stronger  and 
more  divine  than  the  unseen  spirit  of  the  New 
Testament. 

Brethren,  I  do  not  wish  to  take  away  one 
ray  of  glory  from  this  law  of  Moses ;  and  I 
could  not  if  I  would.  Sublime  indeed  with  an 
august  and  awful  glory  is  that  mountain  of  the 


206  The  Sabbath   Question. 

law,  burning  with  fire  and  hidden  in  the  black- 
ness and  darkness  and  tempest,  and  echoing 
with  "  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  and  the  voice 
of  words  ; "  terrible  with  a  divine  glory,  that 
theophany  at  which  Moses  said,  "  I  exceedingly 
fear  and  quake."  Glorious  indeed  was  the 
graven  law  on  the  stone  tables  given  to  be  the 
constitution  of  the  Jewish  state.  What  earthly 
state  had  ever  yet  a  constitution  comparable  for 
a  single  moment  with  it  in  glory?  Glorious, 
too,  with  the  high  glory  of  an  inspired  wisdom 
were  the  laws  and  statutes  written  in  conform- 
ity with  this  grand  constitution  ;  glorious  the 
institutions  and  the  ordinances  which  grew  up 
around  and  under  it,  —  the  ritual,  the  festivals, 
the  holy  places,  and  the  holy  seasons  of  the 
Jewish  people.  Glorious  with  a  peculiar  glory 
were  the  Jewish  Sabbaths,  weekly  Sabbaths, 
monthly  Sabbaths,  Sabbaths  of  years,  culmi- 
nating in  the  great  semi-centennial  Sabbath 
jubilee.  All  this  was  very  glorious.  I  would 
not  speak  one  word  that  should  detract  from  it, 
that  should,  even  in  appearance,  lessen  it.  I 
rather  magnify  and  emphasize  it ;  knowing  all 
the   time,  that  from    it,  as  from  solid  vantage 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       207 

ground,  we  shall  rise  so  much  the  higher  when 
we  come  to  estimate  the  glory  of  the  Christian 
church,  the  beauty  of  the  city  of  the  living  God, 
the  length  and  breadth  and  height  of  the  New 
Jerusalem.  "  For  if  that  which  was  done  away 
is  glorious,  much  more  that  which  remaineth  is 
glorious." 

For  it  is  done  away, — this  glorious  structure 
of  the  Jewish  state,  this  sacred  temple  of  the 
Jewish  church.  It  is  done  away,  —  constitution 
graven  on  stone  tables,  statutes  written  upon 
venerable  rolls,  the  temple,  with  its  august 
ritual,  the  festivals,  with  all  the  glory  of  their 
memory  and  prophecy,  the  humane  civil  ordi- 
nances as  to  meat  and  drink  and  cleanliness, 
the  holy  days,  the  new  moons,  and  the  Sab- 
baths. The  language  of  the  great  apostle,  in 
the  text  and  elsewhere,  is  most  unequivocal 
upon  this  point.  This  was  the  very  point  on 
which  the  church  at  Corinth,  to  which  he  was 
writing,  was  plagued  and  imperilled  at  that  very 
time.  There  had  come  to  it  certain  teachers 
representing  zealously  the  Jewish  party  in  the 
Christian  church,  —  that  party  of  which  I  spoke 
a  week  ago  as    insisting   upon  the  observance 


2o8  The  Sabbath   Question. 

of  Jewish  rites  and  ceremonies  (such  as  the 
rite  of  circumcision),  and  of  Jewish  festivals, 
such  as  the  weekly  Sabbath.  Not  content  with 
these  observances  for  themselves,  to  whom, 
as  Jews  by  birth  and  education,  they  were 
natural  and  valuable,  they  insisted  that  the 
Gentile  churches,  such  as  this  one  at  Corinth, 
should  be  forced  to  keep  them  also  ;  which, 
when  Paul  denied,  they  went  so  far  as  even  to 
dispute  his  apostolical  authority,  and  challenged 
his  doctrine  as  broad  and  dangerous,  and  his 
life  as  lax  and  disorderly.  Against  such  charges 
and  insinuations,  the  apostle,  in  his  letter,  ve- 
hemently defends  himself  ;  and  so,  incidentally, 
has  need  to  refer  again  and  again  to  the  rela- 
tion between  the  gospel  and  the  law,  between 
the  new  covenant  and  the  old,  between  the 
ministration  of  Christ  and  the  ministration  of 
Moses.  Both  are  glorious,  he  says  ;  but  the 
glory  of  the  new  is  infinitely  the  greater.  He 
does  not  honor  Moses  less,  but  he  adores  Christ 
more.  He  does  not  undervalue  or  contemn  the 
Jewish  law  ;  but,  when  he  puts  it  by  the  side  of 
the  glorious  gospel  of  the  Lord,  it  fades  into 
invisibility  by  the    comparison.     Even   the  sa- 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       209 

cred  constitution  of  the  Jewish  state  and  church 
is  not  excepted,  "  written  and  engraven  in 
stones"  (we  know  what  portion  of  the  law  this 
was),  even  this  was  done  away  by  being  super- 
seded. You  do  not  need  a  candle  at  high  noon. 
You  cannot  see  it  if  you  have  it.  It  has  "  no 
glory  in  this  regard,  by  reason  of  the  glory 
that  excelleth."  So  with  the  Jewish  law  :  you 
pay  no  fit  honor  to  it  when  you  insist  that  it  is 
still  in  force,  —  nay,  that  it  is  in  force  more 
really  and  extensively  than  ever.  Exaggerated 
honor  is  dishonor.  The  true  way  to  reverence 
it  is  the  apostle's  way.  Admit  the  glory  of 
it,  —  partial,  temporary,  local.  And  then  lift 
your  eyes  to  see  the  glory  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  ministration  of  the  Spirit. 

Approaching  the  subject  thus  fearlessly,  but 
without  the  least  irreverence,  I  hope  to  show  in 
the  particular  case  which  I  have  taken  in  hand, 
how  our  Lord's  Day  has  greater  glory  than  the 
Jewish  Sabbath.  Only  let  us  first  complete 
and  fortify  the  argument  for  its  observance. 
For  since  the  law  written  and  engraven  in 
stones,  with  all  its  glory,  is  done  away,  we 
have  no    right    to    rest    the    argument    on    the 


210  The  Sabbath   Question. 

commandment.  And,  since  the  living  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  prompts  the  observance,  we  have 
no  need  to  rest  the  argument  on  the  command- 
ment, but  appeal  directly  to  the  liberty  of  love. 
Does  the  love  of  Christ  constrain  us  to  it  ? 
Does  the  love  of  God,  the  love  of  man,  the 
love  of  our  own  souls,  impel  us  to  the  volun- 
tary commemoration  of  this  first  day  of  the 
week  ?  Or  does  this  love  find  fit  and  useful 
expression  in  such  a  commemoration  ? 

(i)  The  question  is  threefold.  Does  love 
to  Christ  constrain  us  ?  The  answer  is  not 
hard  to  find.  I  showed,  a  week  ago,  how  natu- 
rally, how  inevitably,  from  the  very  first,  the 
earliest  disciples  marked  the  day  of  the  Lord's 
resurrection,  as  week  by  week  it  came  around. 
They  could  not  help  it.  It  would  have  been 
hard  not  to  mark  it.  So  profoundly  had  the 
risen  Lord  become  endeared  to  them,  so  sub- 
limely had  he  proved  his  power  and  Godhead 
to  them,  so  mysteriously  near  and  present  to 
them  had  he  come  to  be,  by  rising  from  the 
dead,  that,  by  an  irresistible  impulse,  they  met 
to  speak  of  that  great  victory,  and  to  worship 
the  divine  Victor  on   the  first  day  of  the  week, 


The  Lord  's  Day  Honorable.       2 1 1 

on  which  day  he  arose.  At  first  the  resurrec- 
tion reminded  them  of  the  day.  But  presently 
the  day  began  to  remind  them  of  the  resurrec- 
tion ;  and  they  doubtless  found  a  comfort  in 
their  trials,  and  an  encouragement  in  their 
faith,  as  week  by  week  this  eloquent  com- 
memoration was  repeated.  The  lapse  of  time, 
the  things  of  sense,  must  by  and  by  have 
dimmed  the  memory  and  dulled  the  souls,  even 
of  men  whose  eyes  had  seen  the  Lord.  For 
they  were  in  the  flesh  and  in  the  world,  with 
fleshly  hinderances  to  faith,  with  worldly  liabil- 
ities to  forgetfulness.  For  them,  even  though 
"  with  mortal  eyes  "  they  had  "  beheld  the 
Lord,"  it  was  sometimes  hard  to  remember, 
it  was  often  easy  to  forget.  So,  with  a  natu- 
ral instinct,  they  stretched  out  their  hands  of 
faith  to  grasp  supports  of  any  kind  that  would 
sustain  and  comfort.  Such  a  support  was  the 
Lord's  Day,  speaking  perpetually  of  his  death, 
of  his  resurrection,  of  his  coming  again  to 
raise  them  also  ;  speaking  perpetually,  with 
the  pathetic  eloquence  of  memory,  with  the 
inspiring  eloquence  of  prophecy,  of  him  "that 
liveth  and  was  dead,  and,  behold,  he  is  alive 
forevermore  !  " 


2 1 2  The  Sabbath   Question. 

So,  to  each  successive  generation  of  disciples 
did  this  weekly  festival  prove  its  own  value  and 
establish  its  own  sanctity.  It  made  them  think 
of  Christ,  —  of  Christ,  whom  thus  to  think  of 
is  to  love  the  more.  For  the  working  of  this 
principle  is  the  same  in  either  way  that  we  may 
take  it.  If  we  love  him  we  must  think  of  him. 
If  we  think  of  him  we  must  love  him.  If  we 
love  him  deeply  it  will  help  us  to  connect  the 
thought  of  him  with  every  thing,  with  every 
place,  with  every  time.  If  we  connect  the 
thought  of  him  with  every  thing,  with  every 
place,  with  every  time,  we  shall  love  him  the 
more  deeply.  The  truth  of  this  is  obvious  ; 
and  the  principle  is  one  so  natural,  so  irresist- 
ible, that  we  are  acting  upon  it  more  or  less 
unconsciously  all  the  time.  We  even  call  it  a 
law,  the  law  of  association  ;  only  it  is  applied 
here  in  the  most  sacred  and  important  of  all 
applications.  So  that  the  law  of  association 
may  properly  be  called  a  law  of  the  Lord's  Day. 
And  no  love  that  is  real  and  intelligent  will 
consent  to  disobey  it. 

But  at  first,  before  the  life  and  habits  of  the 
Christian  church  had  come  to  be  well  defined 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       213 

and  adjusted,  there  was  some  risk  of  carrying 
this  law  of  association  to  an  extreme  and  in- 
convenient application.  At  first  the  Christian 
disciples  tried  to  make  of  every  day  a  Lord's 
Day  ;  as  indeed  it  ought  to  be,  in  some  fit  and 
proper  sense  :  they  would  make  of  the  week, 
and  of  the  year,  a  commemoration  of  the  earthly 
life  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  It  has  been  well  said 
by  Robertson  of  Brighton,1  "  they  set,  as  it 
were,  the  clock  of  time  to  the  epochs  of  his  his- 
tory." Friday,  for  instance,  brought  to  mind 
the  day  of  his  death.  Saturday  was  the  day  of 
his  entombment.  Sunday  was  the  day  of  his 
resurrection  ;  and  so  on,  through  the  week  and 
through  the  year.  All  this  was  well.  It 
sprung  from  a  devout  thought  and  purpose. 
It  is  right  for  faith  to  catch  at  every  thing  by 
which  to  stay  itself  ;  for  memory  to  prop  itself, 
for  hope  to  lift  itself,  by  all  such  means.  Only 
there  must  presently  come  in  other  considera- 
tions, other  influences,  other  necessities,  to 
modify  this  practice. 

So,  as   a   matter  of  fact,  the   observance  of 
Friday  grew  more  and  more  unimportant,  grew 

1  Sermons,  vol.  ii.  p.  203. 


214  The  Sabbath    Question. 

less  and  less  strict  and  universal,  though  it 
lingers  to  this  day  among  the  most  numerous 
sections  of  the  Christian  church  ;  the  observ- 
ance of  Saturday  became  obsolescent,  and  at 
last  obsolete ;  but  the  observance  of  Sunday 
has  grown  more  and  more  important,  more  and 
more  universal,  more  and  more  glorious  as  the 
church  has  endured.  What  is  the  reason  of 
this  fact  ? 

The  reason  of  it  is  partly  this,  —  that  the  im- 
portance of  the  resurrection  as  the  culminating 
fact  in  the  earthly  history  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
as  the  last  link  in  the  chain  of  evidence  which 
proved  his  Godhead,  as  the  keystone  of  the 
arch  of  gospel  promise,  fitly  gave  the  resurrec- 
tion day  pre-eminence  above  the  others.  And 
it  presently  began  to  be  discovered  that  a  for- 
mal, general  observance  of  them  all  as  fasts  or 
festivals  would  be  impossible.  To  observe  all 
days  alike  would  answer  very  well,  if  all  days 
alike  would  give  the  opportunity  for  rest  from 
worldly  occupation,  and  for  fellowship  and  wor- 
ship. But  this  could  not  be.  Some  days  must 
be  employed  in  busy  work  from  dawn  till  dusk, 
with  toiling:  hand    and   anxious  heart.     It  was 


The  Lord 's  Day  Honorable.        2  1 5 

not  every  day  that  could  be  rescued  for  the  spe- 
cial and  peculiar  uses  of  religion  and  of  charity. 
It  must  be  one  of  several  days.  The  structure 
of  the  week  as  a  natural  and  inherited  division 
of  time,  pointed  to  one  in  seven  as  the  true 
proportion  between  rest  and  labor.  Probably 
this,  also,  is  the  proportion  indicated  by  God  in 
the  nature  and  constitution  of  man.  One  day 
in  seven  has  been  tried  for  centuries,  and  has 
worked  well.  There  are  on  record  one  or  two 
experiments  of  peoples  who  have  tried  some 
other  proportion.  One  day  in  ten  was  tried  in 
France,  but  unsuccessfully.  It  is  difficult  for 
science,  which  in  such  a  case  must  depend 
upon  experiment  for  its  facts,  to  speak  with 
positive  assertion  on  this  point.  But  men  with- 
out religious  prejudices  to  impel  them  one  way 
or  another,  have  pronounced  that  the  propor- 
tion between  holidays  and  work-days,  between 
rest  and  labor,  is  best  met  by  the  venerable 
Jewish  custom  of  one  in  seven.  Less  than 
that  tends  to  drudgery  and  dulness  and  degra- 
dation, and  so  is  inhuman.  More  than  that 
tends  to  idleness  and  thriftlessness,  and  so  is 
wasteful.      Of    the   first   effect,    examples   are 


216  The  Sabbath   Question, 

abundant  in  all  heathen  lands,  where  the  in- 
cessant round  of  toil,  unbroken  by  a  seventh 
day  of  rest  and  religious  observance,  grinds 
down  to  uniform  debasement  the  faces  of  the 
poor.  Of  the  second  result,  examples  may  be 
found,  sufficiently  significant,  in  certain  Chris- 
tian lands  where  religious  festivals  have  come 
to  be  so  numerous  and  frequent,  that,  by  reason 
of  them,  the  orderly,  industrious,  and  thrifty 
pursuit  of  business  becomes  well  nigh  impos- 
sible. Any  one  who  has  ever  been  in  Rome, 
for  instance,  will  remember  how  fatal  to  habits 
of  industry  and  to  successful  business  are  the 
innumerable  holidays  which  interrupt  the  week, 
and  break  into  irregularity  the  order  of  the 
year.  There  are  so  many  sacred  days,  so 
many  rest-days,  that  the  Lord's  Day,  properly 
so  called,  loses  its  value  and  sanctity,  and  the 
people  waste  their  time  in  idleness  and  worse. 
Practically,  then,  we  may  even  say  that  it 
seems  to  be  partly  proved  by  experiment  that 
one  day  in  seven  taken  from  the  care  of  busi- 
ness and  from  the  drudgery  of  toil  is  good  for 
men  ;  that  less  than  this  is  not  enough,  and 
leaves    them    dull    and    tired  ;    and    that    more 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       217 

than  this  is  too  much,  and  makes  them  lazy 
and  inert. 

But  this  proportion,  justified  apparently  by 
practical  experiment,  was  first  suggested  to  us 
by  the  Jewish  lawgiver.  We  owe  it  to  the 
Hebrew  church.  And  just  in  proportion  as 
science  proves  it  natural  and  necessary,  just  in 
that  proportion  do  we  get  the  fuller  proof  of 
the  high  inspiration  by  which  Moses  was  di- 
rected. In  choosing  this  proportion  he  was 
not  led  by  accident,  he  was  led  by  God.  He 
found  it  hinted  in  the  very  order  of  God's  own 
creation  :  six  days  of  wise  creative  labor,  and 
a  seventh  day  of  holy  rest.  God  showed  him 
this  divine  proportion,  and  he  copied  it ;  and 
by  copying  it  has  made  the  world,  which  is 
adopting  it,  his  debtor. 

This  fact,  then,  helps  to  explain  why  it  was 
that  Friday  and  Saturday  and  the  other  days 
of  the  week  presently  lost  their  constant  asso- 
ciation with  particular  incidents  in  the  life  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  while  Sunday,  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  retained  it.  The  observance  of  the 
other  days  with  any  formal  celebration  was  im- 
possible  for  men  who   had   to   labor  for  their 


218  The  Sabbath    Question. 

daily  bread.  It  deranged  the  true  proportion 
between  days  of  rest  and  days  of  work.  If 
two  days  in  seven  had  been  possible,  they 
would  very  likely  have  observed  Friday  as  a 
general  fast-day,  and  Sunday  as  a  general 
feast-day.  But  since  they  were  shut  up  by 
circumstances,  and  by  nature  even,  to  one  day 
in  seven,  of  course  they  chose  to  keep  the 
first,  the  festival  of  the  Lord's  resurrection. 
Their  love  to  him  constrained  them  to  employ 
the  day  as  a  reminder  of  his  risen  life,  his 
constant  presence. 

Not  less,  my  friends,  not  less  the  love  of 
Christ  constraineth  us.  Do  we  remember  him 
with  so  much  diligence  and  constancy  that  we 
desire  no  aids  to  memory,  no  incentives  to  our 
diligence,  no  confirmation  of  our  constancy  ? 
When  a  friend  beloved  is  taken  from  our  side 
by  death,  with  what  instinctive  eagerness  do 
we  treasure  every  association  that  will  help  to 
keep  his  memory  fresh  and  green.  This  was 
his  birthday,  we  remember,  —  this  was  the  day 
he  died.  Here  is  his  portrait,  here  the  house 
in  which  he  lived,  here  the  green  grave  in 
which  his  body  sleeps.     Our  love  and  fealty  to 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       219 

our  friend  suggest  these  reminiscences,  con- 
strain us  to  these  eloquent  and  powerful  asso- 
ciations. Deliberately  to  put  them  by  and 
forbid  ourselves  the  use  of  them,  seems  to 
argue  a  willingness  to  forget,  a  waning  of  our 
love,  a  shallowness  in  our  regret. 

Just  so,  because  we  love  our  Lord,  we  love 
the  day  that  makes  us  think  of  him.  Does  any 
man  reply  with  disavowal  of  his  love  to  Christ, 
and  say,  "I  do  not  profess  to  love  the  Lord, 
and  therefore  I  do  not  love  the  day  that  makes 
me  think  of  him."  Strange  as  it  seems,  there 
are  those  who  will  make  this  disavowal  and  ex- 
cuse. But  to  such  men  the  necessity  of  such 
a  day  as  this  is  all  the  greater.  You  ought  to 
love  the  Lord  who  loved  you  unto  death,  who 
loves  you  still  with  a  pathetic  agony  of  yearn- 
ing love  ;  you  ought  to  love  him,  and  you  need 
to  be  reminded  of  him  till  you  do.  The  value 
of  the  day  to  you  is  all  the  greater  for  the  very 
reason  which  you  urge  against  it.  There  is  a 
risen  Lord,  a  living  Lord,  a  loving  Lord,  who 
died  for  you,  who  lives  for  you,  who  is  coming 
to  you  in  judgment.  You  need  to  think  of 
him.     You  must  love  him,  for  his  love  is  draw- 


220  The  Sabbath   Question. 

ing  you.  Here  is  a  day  that  naturally  speaks 
of  him.  You  ought  to  listen  to  it.  It  is 
fraught  with  clustering  memories  of  him  and 
of  his  love.  You  need  to  heed  them.  It  is 
bright  with  thronging  promises  of  him  and  of 
his  power.     You  must  not  refuse  them. 

Perhaps  I  have  dwelt  long  enough  upon 
this  first  division  of  my  question.  Does  that 
love  which  is  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  prompt 
us  to  the  observance  of  the  first  day  of  the 
week  ?  Does  love  to  Christ  constrain  us  to 
it  ?  Yes,  I  say.  Love  to  him  would  prompt 
us,  if  we  could,  to  link  every  day  to  him  by 
some  particular  and  potent  association.  But, 
if  this  cannot  be  done,  then  love  to  him  con- 
strains us  to  link  any  day  we  can  to  him  by 
such  perpetual  and  potent  law.  Here  is  a  day 
which  we  can  so  employ.  The  natural  neces- 
sities of  body  and  of  mind  permit,  nay,  even 
require,  one  day  in  seven  for  such  use  as  this. 
And  so  the  argument  is  perfect.  "  This  is  the 
day  which  the  Lord  hath  made :  we  will  rejoice 
and  be  glad  in  it." 

(2)  But  the  love  which  is  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel  burns  broad  as  well   as    high ;   reaches 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       221 

not  only  to  the  heavens,  reaches  also  unto  all 
the  earth  ;  looks  upward  to  the  living  Lord, 
looks  outward  to  our  fellow-men.  Does  love 
to  man  constrain  us,  then,  to  the  observance 
of  this  festival  of  the  Lord's  Day  ? 

It  is  not  hard  to  answer.  If  our  love  to 
men  constrains  us  to  desire  that  they  shall 
know  and  love  the  Lord  who  died  for  them,  it 
must  impel  us  to  supply  them  with  all  useful 
means  and  opportunities  to  know  and  love 
him.  This  is  a  busy  world.  The  cares  of 
poverty  are  many  and  corroding.  The  deceit- 
fulness  of  riches  is  a  very  evil  thing.  Labor 
and  anxiety  and  sorrow,  trial  and  temptation 
and  fatigue,  well  nigh  to  death,  —  these  oc- 
cupy the  time  of  men,  absorb  the  thoughts  of 
men,  busy  the  hearts  of  men  ;  and  Christ  is 
shut  out  from  the  souls  he  came  to  save  and 
sanctify,  because  there  is  no  room  for  him  to 
enter,  because  there  is  no  moment  when  he  can 
be  heard.  On  the  plain  ground  of  expediency, 
then,  we  might  safely  rest  the  observance  of 
one  day  in  seven  as  a  day  of  Christian  oppor- 
tunity. Even  if  you  did  not  need  it  for  your- 
self, nor  I  for  myself,  it  would  be  our  duty,  in 


222  The  Sabbath   Question. 

the  absence  of  all  reason  to  the  contrary,  to 
supply  this  opportunity  to  those  who  needed  it 
for  themselves.  Putting  it  upon  the  very  low- 
est ground,  even,  as  a  day  of  physical  rest  and 
recreation,  it  would  be  the  dictate  of  a  wise 
and  Christian  expediency  to  provide  for  its 
observance.  And  Christian  expediency,  when 
it  is  clearly  recognized,  comes  to  be  Christian 
obligation  ;  just  as,  by  the  law  of  Christ,  privi- 
lege is  no  way  different  from  duty,  nor  duty 
different  from  privilege.  I  say,  then,  that  the 
Lord's  Day,  as  a  day  of  Christian  opportunity, 
is  an  expedient  so  wise,  so  useful,  so  success- 
ful, that  the  love  to  man  which  is  inspired  by 
Christ,  which  is  the  spirit  of  Christ,  constrains 
us  to  the  observance  of  it.  Indeed,  this  seems 
to  me  so  evident,  that  I  need  scarcely  dwell 
upon  it  further. 

(3)  But  the  love  which  we  owe  to  our  own 
souls  constrains  us  to  the  same  result.  We  are 
to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves.  For  us  too, 
as  for  all  men,  Christ  has  died.  And,  since  our 
souls  are  precious  in  his  sight,  they  must  be 
precious  in  our  own.  I  say,  then,  that  you  need 
this  day,  and  that  I  need  it.      If  you  and  I  were 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       223 

wholly  spiritual,  then  all  time  might  be  alike  to 
us.  But  we  are  not  wholly  spiritual.  We  are 
not  out  of  the  body  :  we  are  in  the  flesh.  We 
are  tired,  and  we  need  to  rest.  We  are  thronged 
with  earthly  cares,  and  we  need  sometimes  to 
lay  them  by.  We  are  tempted  to  forgetfulness 
of  Christ,  and  we  need  to  be  reminded  of  him. 
Taking  the  day  upon  the  lowest  ground,  again, 
as  an  opportunity  of  physical  and  mental  rest, 
we  need  it.  Your  physician  will  prescribe  it 
for  you  as  a  necessary  aid  to  bodily  and  mental 
health.  But  we  need  it  even  more,  as  an  oppor- 
tunity for  worship  and  fellowship,  for  "the 
assembling  of  ourselves  together  "  for  mutual 
helpfulness,  for  the  breaking  of  bread,  for  works 
of  charity,  for  the  joyful  anticipation  of  our 
perfect  rest.  Each  one  of  us  is  tired  enough  to 
value  it.  If  we  are  not,  we  ought  to  be.  It 
argues  idleness  and  worthlessness  on  our  part 
if  we  are  not  ready  for  this  rest  when  it  returns. 
Each  one  of  us  is  tired  enough,  tempted  enough, 
distracted  enough,  tied  down  to  earth  enough, 
to  love  the  day  which  gives  us  opportunity  for 
looking  into  heaven.  When  we  cease  to  be 
tired  and  tempted  and    earthbound,  it  will    be 


224  The  Sabbath    Question. 

soon  enough  to  raise  the  question  of  dispensing 
with  this  opportunity ;  when  the  days  cease  to 
be  evil,  it  will  be  soon  enough  to  neglect  to  re- 
deem this  time.  Till  then  we  need  it.  Till 
then  it  is  our  privilege.  Till  then,  therefore, 
the  Spirit  of  our  Lord,  the  love  which  is  the 
law  and  power  of  his  kingdom,  will  constrain 
us  to  its  observance.  Till  then  it  will  help  to 
make  his  presence  real  to  us,  his  life,  his  death, 
his  resurrection  real. 

Resting  here  the  argument  for  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  Day  upon  such  various,  and 
I  presume  to  say  such  firm  and  solid,  bases,  I 
have  left  myself  but  little  space  to  indicate  in 
what  respects  the  glory  of  this  Christian  festival 
is  greater  than  the  glory  of  the  Jewish.  Cer- 
tain points  of  similarity  between  the  two,  as 
well  as  certain  points  of  contrast,  have  inciden- 
tally appeared  in  the  progress  of  the  discussion. 
They  are  not  the  same.  The  one  was  on  the 
seventh  day  of  the  week.  The  other  is  on  the 
first  day  of  the  week.  The  one  had  for  its 
occasion  a  conspicuous  incident  in  the  history 
of  a  nation.  The  other  has  for  its  occasion  the 
central  fact    in  the  history  of   mankind.     The 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       225 

one  was  a  monumental  day  to  mark  the  emanci- 
pation of  a  race  of  slaves.  The  other  is  a  mon- 
umental day  that  marks  the  rescue  of  a  world 
of  sinners.  The  one  rests  on  a  stern  com- 
mandment, graven  on  stone  tables,  given  with 
terrific  and  almost  intolerable  majesty  of  visible 
sight  and  audible  sound.  The  other  rests  upon 
the  free  spirit  of  a  willing  and  loving  disciple- 
ship,  a  spirit  unwritten,  invisible,  the  living, 
loving  Spirit  of  the  living  Lord  himself.  The 
one  is  local.  The  other  is  fast  coming  to  be 
universal. 

So  much  by  way  of  contrast.  But  there  is 
comparison  as  well.  Both  days  were  festivals. 
The  Jewish  Sabbath,  as  I  took  pains  to  show  in 
the  third  of  these  discourses,  was  not  by  any 
means  a  bondage.  It  was  a  privilege,  a  glad 
day,  the  poor  man's  day,  the  slave's  day.  So  is 
our  Christian  festival  a  privilege,  a  glad  day,  a 
day  for  toil  to  cease,  a  day  for  recreation  and 
rejoicing,  a  day  for  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  the 
meek  and  lowly.  Both  have  been  subjected  to 
the  same  abuse, — have  been  twisted  into  bur- 
densome yokes,  —  have  been  made  a  toil  in- 
stead of  a  repose.     Both  days  are  Sabbath  days 


226  The  Sabbath   Question. 

in  some  lower  usage  of  the  word,  but  neither  is 
the  real  and  perfect  Sabbath.  That  is  eternal 
in  the  heavens.  Both  days  are  days  of  memory. 
Both  speak  of  slavery,  —  one  of  the  slavery  of 
Egypt,  the  other  of  the  slavery  of  sin.  Both 
speak  of  rescue  from  slavery, — one  of  the 
rescue  wrought  by  God  through  Moses,  the 
other  of  the  rescue  wrought  by  God  in  Christ. 
Both  days  preach  lessons  of  humility :  one 
spoke  to  Israel  of  their  low  estate,  and  bade 
them  never  to  forget  that  they  were  slaves, 
helpless  and  hopeless,  till  God  rescued  them  ; 
the  other  speaks  to  all  men  of  their  lost  con- 
dition, and  bids  them  never  to  forget  that  they 
were  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  helpless  and 
hopeless,  till  Christ  died  for  them.  Both  days 
are  days  of  prophecy  and  promise.  Both  are 
days  of  rest,  and  speak  of  higher  and  more 
perfect  rest.  Both  days  are  gilded  with  the 
brightness  of  a  coming  glory,  growing  brighter 
as  it  comes  the  nearer.  The  one,  "  illusively  " 
leading  the  expectations  of  the  restless  people 
on  from  Moses  to  Joshua,  from  Joshua  to  David, 
from  David  to  the  Son  of  David  ;  the  other, 
leading    the  expectations  of   the  waiting  world 


The  Lord's  Day  Honorable.       227 

onward  and  upward  through  the  rolling  ages, 
and  above  the  changing  earth,  to  Him  who  all 
the  while  is  coming  again  in  the  power  of  his 
own  resurrection.  The  first  day  prophesied  the 
second,  and  the  second  typifies  the  last.  Both 
days  are  glorious  with  the  glory  which  streams 
in  from  the  invisible;  but  just  as  of  two  moun- 
tain peaks,  the  highest  one  will  catch  the  grand- 
est splendor  of  the  sunlight  and  hold  it  longest : 
so  of  these,  the  Christian  festival  has  glory  so 
excelling,  that,  by  comparison  with  it,  the  other 
is  not  glorified.  Both  days  are  temporary  and 
transient,  for  "they  reckon  not  by  years  and 
days"  within  the  veil.  One  of  them  is  done 
away  already.  The  other  yet  remains.  And 
if  that  which  is  done  away  was  glorious,  much 
more  that  which  remaineth  is  glorious. 

Chiefly  in  these  three  respects  it  has  pre-em- 
inent glory  beyond  that  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath. 
I  need  only  point  them  out  in  closing,  for  I 
have  dwelt  upon  them  already  by  anticipation  ; 
and  I  leave  every  man  to  ponder  them  in  his 
own  thoughts. 

This  first.  The  Christian  festival  is  a  free 
day.     Its  service  is  a  willing  service.     It  rests 


228  The  Sabbath   Question. 

upon  no  stony  statute.  It  is  the  spontaneous, 
unforced  act  of  loving  discipleship.  And  its 
glory  in  this  regard  is  so  much  greater  than  the 
glory  of  the  Jewish  day,  as  the  liberty  of  love  is 
greater  than  the  bondage  of  the  law ;  as  the 
ministration  of  the  Spirit  is  more  glorious  than 
the  ministration  of  the  letter. 

And  this  day,  secondly,  is  more  glorious  than 
the  other  by  reason  of  its  universality.  That 
was  local  —  for  one  nation.  This  is  fast  becom- 
ing universal.  Already  it  is  accepted  as  a  wel- 
come privilege  by  Christian  nations  many  and 
populous.  And  whenever  in  his  stately  goings, 
the  Lord  Christ  comes  in  the  knowledge  of  his 
gospel  to  new  nations  and  new  lands,  on  distant 
continents  or  in  the  islands  of  the  sea,  he  brings 
this  privilege  with  him,  —  imposing  it  on  none, 
permitting  it  to  all.  And  so,  by  an  increasing 
multitude  which  no  man  can  number,  it  is  com- 
ing to  be  valued  and  observed ;  and  weary  sons 
of  toil  look  up  from  the  long  bondage  of  unre- 
mitted drudgery,  and  give  thanks  for  the  day 
which  gives  them  liberty  and  rest  ;  and  souls 
long-laboring  and  heavy  laden  with  the  tiresome 
yoke  of  sin  rejoice  to  celebrate  the  day  which 


TJie  Lord's  Day  Honorable.        229 

promises  a  rest  remaining  for  the  people  of 
God.  So  that  soon,  as  year  by  year  the  king- 
dom of  our  Lord  advances,  there  shall  be  no 
land  or  nation,  no  kindred  or  people,  where  this 
day  shall  not  commemorate  the  resurrection  of 
the  Lord,  and  prophesy  the  rest  which,  in  the 
power  of  his  resurrection,  he  is  giving  and  shall 
give  to  men. 

And  this  suggests  the  third  respect  in  which 
the  glory  of  this  day  is  greater  than  the  glory 
of  the  Jewish  day,  —  its  increased  spirituality. 
The  Jewish  day,  indeed,  pointed  to  heaven  and 
to  God,  but  pointed  indirectly  and  remotely, 
pointed  through  types  and  shadows  and  inter- 
vening clouds.  It  spoke  of  heaven  ;  but  it  spoke 
of  Moses  first,  of  Joshua,  of  David,  and  through 
them  of  heaven.  But  this  day  points  directly 
upward,  through  no  media,  but  straight  into  the 
opening  heaven,  to  Christ  who  died,  yea  rather, 
who  is  risen  again,  and  who  is  coming  in  his 
risen  power  to  give  us  rest  with  him,  to  give  us 
rest  in  him.  We  know  where  our  rest  is.  We 
know  how  our  rest  is.  We  look  to  him.  And 
this  day  speaks  to  us  directly,  potently  of  him. 
To-day,  then,  brethren,  if   ye  will   hear   his 


230  The  Sabbath    Question. 

voice,  harden  not  your  hearts  ;  and  see  that  ye 
refuse  not  him  that  speaketh  —  that  speaketh 
on  his  holy  day  and  by  it.  For  by  as  much  as 
our  heavenly  Jerusalem  is  more  glorious  than 
the  awful  mount  that  burned  with  fire,  by  so 
much  is  the  eloquence  and  pathos  of  this  day 
more  mighty  than  the  teaching  of  the  Jewish 
Sabbath.  Let  there  not  be,  my  brethren,  let 
there  not  be  in  us,  in  any  one  of  us,  an  evil 
heart  of  unbelief,  lest,  a  promise  being  left  us 
of  entering  into  rest,  of  sharing  in  the  glory  of 
Christ's  resurrection,  any  of  us  should  seem  to 
come  short  of  it. 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord' s  Day.   231 


VI. 

THE   RIGHT    OBSERVANCE    OF   THE 
LORD'S    DAY. 

"  ILet  eijcrg  man  be  fulls  persuatJcH  in  tys  ofon  minU." 
Rom.  xiv.  5. 

IT  may  have  seemed  to  some,  as  they  have 
listened  to  the  sermons  in  which,  during  the 
last  few  weeks,  I  have  discussed  the  relation  of 
the  Jewish  Sabbath  to  the  Christian  festival 
of  the  Lord's  Day,  and  the  relation  of  both  of 
these  rest-days  to  the  eternal  Sabbath  of  the  liv- 
ing God,  —  it  may  have  seemed  to  some,  I  say, 
that  the  tendency  of  the  argument  was  rather 
to  unsettle  the  minds  of  men,  — and  that,  too, 
upon  a  most  important  and  practical  matter,  — 
than  to  persuade  them  fully  concerning  their 
own  personal  duty.  To  such  persons  it  seems 
a  grievous  evil  that  the  minds  of  men  should 
be  unsettled  on  so  grave  a  subject.  No  doubt 
it  is.     And  no  doubt    the    apostle    Paul  would 


232  The  Sabbat  It   Question. 

so  regard  it ;  since  we  here  find  him,  speaking 
on  this  very  point,  deprecating  any  such  unset- 
tlement  of  conviction,  and  urging,  "  Let  every 
man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind." 
The  word  used  is  a  very  strong  and  emphatic 
one.  The  meaning  is,  that  every  man  should 
carefully  and  clearly  settle  the  question  of  duty 
in  his  own  convictions.  Let  him  be  fully  per- 
suaded, and  let  him  be  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own  mind. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  where  the  danger  is 
if  questions  of  this  sort  are  left  unsettled. 
The  apostle  himself  indicates  it  a  little  far- 
ther on.  Scruples  of  conscience  can  never  be 
disregarded  safely  ;  and,  therefore,  scruples  of 
conscience  ought  not  to  be  unnecessarily  multi- 
plied. To  think  that  a  thing  is  wrong  is  to 
make  it  wrong  to  him  who  thinks  so.  "  He 
that  doubteth,"  says  the  apostle,  with  regard 
to  the  vexed  question  of  meats  offered  to  idols, 
"  He  that  doubteth  is  damned  if  he  eat."  To 
eat  is  net  wrong  :  to  refrain  from  eating  is  not 
wrong.  But  to  eat  when  one  thinks  he  ought 
not  to  eat  is  wrong  :  to  refrain  from  eating 
when  one    thinks    he    ought    to    eat    is  wrong. 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.   233 

The  spirit  with  which  the  thing  is  done  is  what 
gives  it  its  character.  It  is  the  conscience  of 
the  man  that  must  be  kept  void  of  offence.  If 
it  be  an  ignorant  or  mistaken  conscience,  still 
it  is  conscience,  and  must  not  be  wounded.  If 
the  light  it  gives  is  broken  and  imperfect  light, 
it  must  still  be  followed.  It  is  to  be  enlight- 
ened by  all  possible  means,  cleansed,  strength- 
ened, instructed,  —  certainly  ;  but  meantime 
it  is  to  be  followed,  what  there  is  of  it,  and 
used  as  best  it  may  be.  To  act  in  opposition 
to  it,  or  in  disregard  of  it,  is  to  incur  spiritual 
injury  and  damage  of  a  very  serious  sort. 

This  is  the  position  which  the  apostle  takes, 
and  it  commands  assent  the  moment  it  is  stated. 
All  men  agree  that  a  man  must  act  according 
to  the  light  he  has  ;  and,  if  he  does  so,  we  hold 
him  blameless.  Walking  in  the  twilight,  I  may 
see  what  seems  to  be  a  dangerous  pit  :  if  it 
so  seems  to  me  by  this  twilight,  according  to 
the  best  judgment  I  can  form,  of  course  I  must 
keep  clear  of  it.  Returning  by  and  by,  at 
noonday,  I  discover  that  it  is  not  a  perilous 
pit  at  all,  but  a  harmless  shadow.  Now  I  am 
not  bound  to  keep  clear  of  it,  but  pass  directly 


234  The  Sabbath   Question. 

over  it.  So  conscience  may  bind  me  to  do  one 
thing  to-day  ;  but  to-morrow,  being  better  in- 
structed, it  may  bind  me  to  do  the  opposite 
thing.  Or  my  conscience  may  bind  me  to  one 
course,  and  your  conscience,  being  differently 
instructed,  may  bind  you  to  the  opposite  course. 
And  so  we  may  have,  and  often  do  have,  the 
spectacle  of  two  equally  good  men,  equally  con- 
scientious men,  doing  two  diverse  and  even 
directly  antagonistic  acts.  In  such  a  case  the 
danger  is  (first),  that  they  will  judge  one  an- 
other by  the  light  each  one  of  his  own  con- 
science ;  whereas  that  is  sufficient  only  for  the 
judgment  of  one's  self,  and  not  for  the  judg- 
ment of  one's  neighbor  :  or  else  (secondly), 
that  they  will  disregard  each  one  his  own  con- 
science, and  adopt  each  one  his  neighbor's. 
The  danger  is  twofold.  Let  me  state  it  again 
still  more  simply.  I  may  impose  my  con- 
science on  my  neighbor,  and  say,  "  What  is 
wrong  for  me  is  wrong  for  you,"  and  therefore 
condemn  him.  Or  I  may  adopt  his  conscience 
for  myself,  and  say,  "  What  is  right  for  you  is 
right  for  me,"  and  therefore  follow  him,  to 
the  damage  of  my  own  soul.     In  either  case  I 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  235 

greatly  err.  For  I  forget  that  each  man's  con- 
science is  his  own,  and  no  one's  else.  It  binds 
no  one  but  him.     But  him  it  does  bind. 

Hence  the  importance  of  settling  questions 
of  duty  clearly,  firmly,  intelligently,  —  not  by 
force, '  but  by  persuasion  ;  and  not  for  other 
people,  not  for  everybody  once  for  all,  but  each 
one  for  himself,  every  man  in  his  own  mind. 
Unless  this  be  done,  this  double  danger  of 
judging  our  brother,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
being  made  to  offend  by  our  brother,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  very  present  and  very  constant. 
When  a  man  is  fully  persuaded  in  his  own 
mind  concerning  his  own  duty  he  will  be  safe 
against  both  perils.  He  will  respect  the  con- 
science of  other  men  because  he  respects  his 
own  ;  and,  if  they  differ  with  him,  he  will 
neither  judge  them  nor  be  judged  by  them. 
But  if  he  has  no  firm  convictions  of  his  own, 
he  will  suffer  constant  damage.  He  is  queru- 
lous on  the  one  hand,  and  timorous  on  the  other. 
He  does  a  thing,  and  presently  chides  himself 
for  fear  that  it  was  wrong,  and  so  begins  to 
abstain  from  doing  it.  Or  he  abstains  from  a 
thing,  and  presently  grumbles  because  he  sees 


236  TJie  Sabbath   Question. 

other  people  doing  it  with  no  sense  of  wrong, 
and  so  begins  to  do  it  himself.  "  I  don't  know 
that  it  is  right,"  he  says,  and  yet  he  does  it  ; 
and  so  his  conscience  worries  him,  and  ought  to 
worry  him.  "  I  don't  know  that  it  is  wrong," 
he  says  ;  and  yet  he  does  not  do  it,  and  so  he 
is  chafed  and  fretted  with  his  bondage.  Either 
way  he  has  no  liberty,  no  peace  ;  and  the  only 
way  for  him  to  secure  liberty  and  peace  and 
safety  is  to  follow  the  counsel  of  the  apostle 
in  this  text,  "  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded 
in  his  own  mind."  Let  him  be  settled  in  his 
convictions. 

But  some  things  never  can  be  settled  till 
they  are  settled  right.  To  settle  a  question  of 
conscience  by  force,  for  instance,  —  by  external 
pressure  of  command  and  authority,  — is  no  way 
to  settle  it.  Settle  it  that  way,  and,  as  soon  as 
the  pressure  of  outside  force  is  taken  off,  it  will 
present  itself  again.  It  is  to  be  settled,  not 
violently,  but  intelligently  ;  not  by  an  appeal  to 
arbitrary  statutes,  but  by  an  appeal  to  eternal 
principles  ;  not  by  referring  it  to  the  letter 
which  killeth,  but  to  the  spirit  which  giveth 
life.     Let  a  man  be  persuaded  in  his  own  mind. 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord" s  Day.   237 

Let  him  see  the  reason  of  the  thing.  Let 
him  see  on  what  unchanging  principles  it  rests. 
Let  it  be  settled  by  intelligent  persuasion, 
not  by  unreasoning  compulsion.  Then  it  will 
stand. 

And  "every  man  in  his  own  mind."  Let 
the  settlement  be  a  personal  one.  Let  me  re- 
member that  I  am  deciding  for  myself,  and  not 
for  my  neighbor  ;  and  that  he  is  deciding  for 
himself,  and  not  for  me.  "  Every  one  of  us 
shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God,"  —  of 
himself,  not  of  his  neighbor.  Each  before  his 
Judge,  in  the  court  of  his  own  conscience, 
stands  or  falls.  It  will  be  a  great  comfort  to 
us  if  we  bear  this  fact  in  mind.  It  will  save 
us  a  great  deal  of  worry  and  care.  We  need 
not  decide  questions  of  duty  for  other  people. 
We  cannot  decide  them  for  other  people. 
Some  people  think  that  this  is  what  a  minis- 
ter is  for,  to  decide  questions  of  casuistry  for 
his  congregation.  I  always  refuse  to  do  it. 
Every  one  in  his  own  mind,  and  for  himself, 
must  settle  them.  Principles  are  the  same, 
always,  and  to  all ;  but  how  to  apply  principles 
each  man  must  determine  for  himself,     I  can 


238  The  Sabbath   Question. 

give  advice,  experience,  sympathy,  help  ;  but, 
in  the  end,  I  cannot  take  off  from  any  man's 
conscience  its  own  personal  responsibility.  To 
fetter  him  in  his  own  determinations  is  spiritual 
tyranny  of  the  most  intolerable  sort.  To  in- 
flict it  is  a  cruel  wrong.  And  good  men  have 
gone  to  the  stake  and  the  gallows  rather  than 
submit  to  it. 

Having  now  drawn  out  the  meaning  of  the 
text,  I  wish  to  apply  it  to  the  question  which 
we  have  had  under  discussion.  It  almost  ap- 
plies itself  sufficiently.  Depend  upon  it,  this 
Sabbath  question  never  will  be  settled  till  it  is 
settled  right ;  never  will  cease  to  be  a  perplex- 
ing question  till  the  argument  for  it  is  based, 
as  I  have  tried  to  base  it,  on  right  principles  ; 
never  will  cease  to  be  a  painful  question,  caus- 
ing censoriousness  on  one  side  and  offence  on 
the  other,  till  it  is  recognized  as  being  a  matter, 
not  for  general  and  obligatory  commandment, 
but  for  the  individual  conscience.  And  if  the 
argument  which  I  have  been  conducting  has 
tended  to  unsettle  anybody's  mind,  I  justify 
myself  by  saying  that  it  has  been  with  the 
hope  and  purpose  that  thereby  such  a  person's 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.   239 

mind  might  be  settled  right  again,  and  settled 
permanently,  in  Christian  faith  and  Christian 
charity. 

That  most  thoughtful  and  Christian  preacher 
whom  I  have  had  occasion  to  quote  already, 
once  or  twice,  in  the  course  of  this  discussion, 
Robertson  of  Brighton,  has  pointed  out  the 
fact J  that  hardened  criminals  have  sometimes 
traced  their  career  in  crime  to  the  breaking  of 
the  Sabbath  day  as  its  first  step.  But,  as  he 
observes  with  fine  discernment,  the  inference 
which  we  sometimes  draw  from  such  a  confes- 
sion is  unwarranted.  We  sometimes  infer,  that, 
because  the  criminal  confesses  that  his  break- 
ing of  the  Sabbath  was  a  sin  to  him,  therefore 
it  must  be  sin  to  every  one  and  everywhere. 
Whereas,  this  does  not  follow.  It  only  fol- 
lows that  the  criminal  wounded  his  own  con- 
science. He  did  a  thing  which  he  thought 
was  wrong.  To  him,  therefore,  it  was  wrong. 
Whether  it  is  wrong  to  other  people  or  not,  is 
still  an  open  question. 

So,  I  dare  say,  many  of  us  have,  at  one 
time  or  another,  sinned  in  the  same  way.     If 

1  Sermons,  vol.  ii.  p.  210. 


240  The  Sabbath   Question. 

we  regard  the  Jewish  law  of  the  Sabbath  as 
still  in  force,  then  we  are  bound  to  obey  it, 
and  to  obey  the  whole  of  it.  If  we  are  fully 
persuaded  in  our  own  minds  that  the  fourth 
commandment  is  a  statute  for  us,  then  dis- 
obedience to  the  fourth  commandment  is  for 
us  a  grievous  sin.  And  yet  I  doubt  if  there 
is  one  of  us  who  keeps  that  fourth  command- 
ment :  it  designates  the  seventh  day  ;  have 
we  never  had  scruples  concerning  the  seventh 
day  ?  Have  we  ever  fully  persuaded  our  own 
minds  concerning  the  twist  by  which  this  law 
is  made  applicable  to  the  first  day  ?  Have  we 
not  sometimes  doubted  whether  we  were  not 
bound  to  fall  in  with  the  Seventh-day  Baptist 
sect  in  their  observance  of  Saturday  ?  And 
doubting  thus,  but  not  regarding  our  doubts, 
have  we  not  damaged  our  consciences  ? 

Or,  if  no  one  pleads  guilty  on  this  point,  let 
us  look  still  farther.  "In  it  thou  shalt  not  do 
any  work," — this  is  the  language  of  the  com- 
mand,—  "in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work, 
thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  nor  thy 
manservant,  nor  thy  maidservant,  nor  thy  cattle, 
nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates."     Do 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  241 

we  obey  this  law  ?  It  is  a  strict  law ;  it  is  a 
plain  law ;  it  is  easy  to  understand  it ;  it  is  hard 
to  evade  it.  "  Not  any  work."  Do  you  do  no 
work  on  Sunday  ?  I  do  not  ask  whether  you 
do  less  work  than  on  week-days.  I  ask  whether 
you  do  no  work.  Do  you  never  write  a  letter  ? 
Do  you  never  busy  your  brain  with  cares  of 
business  ?  Do  you  never  work  with  hand  or 
foot?  Carry  the  question  farther  still.  Does 
your  man-servant  or  your  maid-servant  not  do 
any  work  on  Sunday  except  what  is  dictated 
by  mercy  or  necessity  ?  Do  you  never  stretch 
those  words  "mercy  and  necessity"  to  cover 
somewhat  multitudinous  exceptions  ?  Carry  the 
question  farther  still.  Do  your  cattle  do  no 
work  on  Sunday  ?  Do  you  make  no  use  of 
your  horses  except  what  necessity  or  mercy 
dictates  ?  Brethren,  I  do  not  believe  that  any 
one  of  us,  tried  by  the  standard  of  this  Jewish 
law,  could  plead  not  guilty.  We  allow  ourselves 
in  things  which  we  believe  that  it  condemns. 

What  then  ?  Do  I  say  that  no  man  must  use 
his  horse  on  Sunday  ;  that  no  man  must  suffer 
food  to  be  cooked  in  his  house  on  Sunday ;  that 
no  man  may  walk  on  Sunday  except  as  mercy 


242  The  Sabbath    Question. 

or  necessity  requires ;  that  no  man  may  put 
forth  his  hand  or  employ  his  brain  in  work,  for 
recreation,  for  example,  or  for  expediency  of 
any  sort, — do  I  say  this  ?  No:  because  I  do 
not  hold  the  fourth  commandment  as  obligatory. 
If  I  did,  I  should  say  this.  If  you  do,  you  are 
bound  to  do  this.  And  if  you  recognize  your 
obligation  to  do  this,  and  do  it  not,  you  wound 
your  conscience  and  do  damage  to  your  soul. 
And  here  is  the  point.  Our  theory  concerning 
the  Lord's  Day  is  in  conflict  with  our  practice. 
Our  theory  concerning  it  is,  that  the  law  of  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  applies  to  it.  '  Our  practice  is 
to  use  it  with  more  or  less  of  Christian  liberty. 
What  shall  we  do,  then  ?  Our  Christian  in- 
stincts urge  us  to  liberty.  Our  Jewish  tradi- 
tions entangle  us  with  a  yoke  of  bondage.  The 
spirit  seems  to  justify  our  freedom.  The  letter 
seems  to  condemn  it.  Our  practice  does  not 
seem  to  us  wrong,  when  we  look  into  the  Gos- 
pels and  the  epistles.  But  it  does  not  seem  to 
us  right,  when  we  look  into  the  books  of  Ex- 
odus and  Deuteronomy.  We  condemn  our- 
selves in  that  which  we  allow.  We  eat,  but 
doubt.     And  the  wear  and  tear  of  conscience 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.   243 

in  the  process  is  serious  and  perilous.  What 
shall  we  do,  then  ?  Manifestly,  this  is  the  first 
thing  to  be  done  :  "  Let  every  man  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind."  Take  the  ques- 
tion up  fearlessly  and  honestly.  Find  out  which 
is  right,  our  theory  or  our  practice.  Settle  the 
point. 

But  how  settle  it  ?  Suppose  we  cannot  set- 
tle it.  Suppose,  when  all  the  light  possible  has 
been  gained  by  study,  people's  minds  will  dis- 
agree. Suppose,  when  all  is  done,  the  practice 
of  the  Christian  world  is  still  not  uniform. 
Suppose  it  to  be  true  of  us,  as  it  was  of  the 
church  at  Rome  in  Paul's  day,  that  "one  man 
esteemeth  one  day  above  another ;  another 
esteemeth  every  day  alike."     What  then  ? 

The  case  is  not  a  hypothetical  one  with  us. 
It  is  a  very  real,  a  very  important,  a  very  em- 
barrassing one.  We  of  New  England,  our 
fathers  who  are  buried  there,  and  we  who  turn 
with  loving  hearts  and  reverent  memory  thither, 
as  to  the  source  and  fount  of  what  is  best  and 
truest  in  the  nation,  —  our  fathers  and  ourselves 
(with  some  eminent  exceptions)  have  been 
accustomed  to  regard  the  Lord's  Day  as  com- 


244  The  Sabbath    Question. 

manded  by  the  Jewish  law,  and  to  quote  that 
law  as  the  authority  for  its  observance.  On 
the  other  hand,  good  men  in  Germany  and  else- 
where, devout  and  learned  men,  have  been 
accustomed  to  regard  the  Jewish  law  as  super- 
seded, and  to  observe  the  Lord's  Day  upon 
different  grounds  and  in  a  very  different  way. 
Within  a  few  years  past  the  steady  stream  of 
immigration  has  made  European  views  and 
practices  concerning  this  matter  exceedingly 
familiar  to  us.  The  increased  facilities  of  inter- 
course between  nations  have  operated  to  bring 
us  together,  to  show  us  one  aribther's  usages, 
and  to  put  them  in  frequent  and  distinct  con- 
trast. The  Lord's  Day  in  New  England  —  I 
instance  New  England  as  representative  of 
what  is  best  in  the  American  churches  —  is  a 
very  different  thing  from  the  Lord's  Day  in 
Berlin,  or  even  from  the  Lord's  Day  in  Chicago, 
or  even  from  the  Lord's  Day  in  New  York  and 
in  Newark.  In  these  last  cities  the  American 
Sunday  and  the  European  Sunday  are  put  side 
by  side.  We  see  the  difference  between  them. 
We  mark  how  each  is  modifying  the  other. 
We  begin  to  fear  lest  the  nation  shall  come  to 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.   245 

esteem  every  clay  alike ;  and  not  every  day 
alike  holy,  but  every  day  alike  profane.  And 
we  shrink  from  the  surrender  of  any  voice  of 
authority,  of  any  force  of  law,  which  arrests  or 
discourages  such  profanation.  Already,  we  say, 
the  tendency  in  what  seems  to  us  the  wrong 
direction  is  strong  enough  and  far  too  strong. 
Let  us  make  our  laws  stricter.  Let  us  hold 
more  rigid  theories  than  ever.  Let  us  be  more 
scrupulous  in  our  observance  than  before.  Let 
us  denounce  these  foreign  customs.  Let  us 
put  upon  them  the  stigma  of  our  condemnation. 
Let  us  judge  our  brethren.  Let  us  treat  their 
customs  with  opprobrium  and  obloquy.  Let  us 
make  them  feel  the  strong  restraint  and  penalty 
of  civil  law.  At  any  rate,  let  us  not,  at  such  a 
time  as  this,  give  up  the  useful  terrors  of  the 
Jewish  commandment.  Let  us  not  weaken  our 
case  by  untimely  concessions.  Let  us  even  do 
a  little  evil,  and  defend  our  practice  with  a  false 
sanction,  in  order  that  so  great  a  good  as  the 
preservation  of  our  Puritan  Sabbath  may  come. 
The  temptation  to  do  this  is  very  strong  and 
very  plausible.  But  I  do  not  think  that  the 
apostle    Paul  would    have   yielded  to  it.     I  do 


246  The  Sabbath    Question. 

not  think  he  would  have  given  such  advice  as 
this.  I  think  that  he  would  say,  as  in  the  text 
he  has  said,  "  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded 
in  his  own  mind."  There  is  a  right  way  and  a 
wrong  way  to  deal  with  this  case.  The  wrong 
way  is  to  deal  with  it  by  force.  The  right  way 
is  to  deal  with  it  by  conscience,  respecting  the 
liberty  of  conscience  on  the  one  hand,  respect- 
ing the  weakness  of  conscience  on  the  other. 
I  have  very  strong  views  on  the  question  of 
comparison  between  the  European  Sabbath  and 
the  American  Sabbath.  I  very  greatly  prefer 
our  methods  of  employing  and  observing  the 
day.  I  strongly  deprecate  the  tendency  to 
make  of  it  a  day  of  mere  amusement,  of  animal 
enjoyment,  of  junketing  and  riot.  But  I  would 
resist  this  tendency  by  fully  persuading  the 
minds  of  men  that  our  way  is  the  better  way, 
and  that  it  is  demanded  by  the  highest  and 
most  intelligent  interpretation  of  the  law  of 
liberty,  the  law  of  love,  the  law  of  Christ.  If  I 
cannot  do  it  thus,  I  do  not  want  to  do  it  at  all. 

Broadly  stated,  this  is  the  difference  between 
the  European  Sabbath  and  the  American  Sab- 
bath.    With  us  the  day  is  a  religious  day  exclu- 


Rig  Jit  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.   247 

sively.  It  is  a  day  restricted  to  the  uses  of 
Christian  worship  and  of  Christian  fellowship. 
Public  amusements  are  discountenanced  and 
forbidden.  People  are  expected  to  spend  their 
time  at  their  own  homes  or  in  their  places  of 
worship,  and  in  religious  occupations.  On  the 
continent  of  Europe,  and  where  European  cus- 
toms have  been  introduced  among  us,  it  is  very 
different.  People  go  to  church  in  the  morning, 
—  that  is  to  say,  some  of  them  do,  not  all  of 
them,  —  but,  after  that,  the  day  is  given  up  to 
mere  amusement.  Great  dinners  are  given. 
It  is  the  day  for  public  and  official  banquets. 
The  avenues  and  parks  are  crowded  with  people 
walking  and  riding.  It  is  the  great  day  for 
military  parades  and  public  spectacles  of  every 
sort  ;  for  horse-races  and  things  of  that  sort. 
In  the  evening  all  the  places  of  amusement 
put  forth  their  most  attractive  programmes,  and 
are  thronged  with  people.  And  of  course, 
more  or  less  generally,  shops  are  open  and 
workmen  busy  in  supplying  the  wants  of  this 
great  multitude  of  pleasure-seekers.  It  is  a 
bright,  merry,  popular  day,  but  not  especially  a 
devout  or  a  religious  day. 


248  The  Sabbath    Question. 

Between  these  two  methods  of  observance  I 
do  not  hesitate  for  a  moment.  Who  that  recalls 
the  sacred  stillness  of  a  New  England  Sabbath, 
—  from  the  moment  when  the  church-bells  fill 
the  morning  air  with  music,  till  the  peace  of 
evening  settles  down  upon  the  deeper  peace  of 
holy  fellowship  with  God,  for  which  the  day 
has  given  opportunity,  —  who  that  recalls  the 
sanctity  of  the  day  as  our  fathers  kept  it, 
the  resistless  eloquence  with  which  it  spoke, 
even  to  the  heedless  and  reluctant,  of  another 
world  than  this,  a  pure  and  holy  world,  a  spir- 
itual world,  —  the  solemn  sweetness  with  which 
it  touched  all  souls,  reminding  them  of  one  who 
died  for  all  that  all  might  live,  of  one  who  rose 
again  that  by  the  power  of  his  resurrection  we 
might  be  glorified,  —  who,  I  say,  remembering 
this,  will  not  say  that  our  observance  of  the 
Lord's  Day  (or  let  us  rather  say  our  fathers' 
observance  of  the  Lord's  Day)  as  a  spiritual 
day,  was  far  better  than  the  French  observance 
of  it,  or  the  German  observance  of  it,  or  the 
Roman  observance  of  it  as  a  day  for  sensuous 
and  animal  enjoyment?  By  as  much  as  spirit 
is    better  than    matter,  by  as  much  as  soul  is 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  249 

nobler  than  body,  by  as  much  as  eternity  is 
loftier  than  time,  by  so  much  is  it  better.  So 
it  seems  to  me. 

Doubtless,  our  fathers'  observance  of  the  day 
was  often  overscrupulous,  often  legal  and 
severe,  often  uncharitable  even,  in  its  intoler- 
ance. Doubtless  it  was  defended  by  poor  argu- 
ments ;  doubtless  it  was  enforced  with  zeal 
which  was  not  according  to  knowledge.  But 
they  were  fully  persuaded  in  their  own  minds, 
and  they  acted  on  their  convictions-  with  an 
heroic  fidelity.  They  were  spiritually-minded 
men,  although  sometimes  severe  in  word  and 
strict  in  deed.  If  we  can  improve  upon  the 
practice  of  our  fathers  in  any  particular,  we 
are  bound  to  do  it.  But  it  will  be  a  good  while 
before  we  improve  upon  the  religiousness  and 
devoutness  of  their  spirit.  So  too,  if  in  these 
respects  we  can  learn  any  lessons,  even  from 
the  Germans,  whose  observance  of  the  day  we 
on  the  whole  disapprove,  we  are  bound  to  do  it. 
And  if  we  can  teach  them  any  lessons,  if  we 
can  show  them  any  more  excellent  way,  if  we 
can  share  with  them  any  inheritance  of  Chris- 
tian method  which  is  better  than  their  own,  as 


250  The  Sabbath    Question. 

I  surely  think  we  can,  then  we  are  bound  to  do 
that  also. 

And  it  seems  to  me  (I  say  these  things  in 
the  way  of  suggestion  merely,  and  not  at  all 
in  the  spirit  of  authority),  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  same  motives  which  impel  us  to  the  observ- 
ance of  the  day  at  all,  should  impel  us  to  the 
observance  of  it  in  a  spiritual  way,  in  a  devout 
and  religious  way,  in  a  Puritan  way  if  you 
please  to  say  so,  rather  than  in  the  European 
way  of  secular  amusement  and  animal  recre- 
ation. What  those  motives  were  I  need  only 
remind  you,  since  I  dwelt  at  length  upon  them 
in  the  last  discourse. 

I  said  that  love  to  Christ,  whose  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead  this  day  celebrates,  impels 
us  to  commemorate  it.  Because  we  love  him, 
we  love  the  day  that  reminds  us  of  him.  Be- 
cause we  love  him,  also,  we  shall  so  use  the 
day  that  it  shall  best  remind  us  of  him.  How 
shall  it  best  remind  us  of  him  ?  By  giving  up 
its  time  to  sport  and  merriment,  by  strollings 
in  the  streets,  and  gossipings  in  public  places  ; 
by  spectacles  of  worldly  gayety,  by  noisy  music, 
by  sensuous  eating  and   drinking,  by   theatres 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  251 

and  concerts,  by  idleness  and  sloth  ?  I  think 
not,  verily.  By  meditation  on  his  truth,  by 
communion  with  his  saints,  by  worship  in  pri- 
vate and  in  public,  by  prayer  for  his  Spirit, 
by  praise  for  his  redemption,  —  in  such  ways 
as  these  we  shall  be  best  reminded  of  him,  in 
such  ways  as  these  we  shall  get  nearest  to 
him.  And  if  opportunity  is  given  us  to  speak 
of  him  to  others,  or  to  do  in  his  name  works 
of  charity  and  brotherly  kindness,  in  such  ways 
we  shall  get  still  nearer  to  him,  shall  be  in 
even  sweeter  fellowship  with  him.  Gather 
your  little  ones  about  you,  if  God  has  given 
you  little  ones  to  train  for  him  ;  gather  them 
about  you.  Let  the  day  become  a  very  wel- 
come day,  a  very  happy  day,  to  them  ;  because, 
more  than  any  other  day,  it  is  a  household  day, 
because  the  loving  ties  of  natural  affection 
find  more  full  and  beautiful  expression  than 
on  other  days.  Let  the  thought  of  Christ  be 
the  deep  undertone  which  charms  and  hallows 
all  the  day,  and  which  is  heard  more  full,  more 
deep,  more  resonant  with  eternal  music,  in 
the  Sunday  stillness  than  when  driving  cares 
and  roaring  businesses  and  jarring  discords  of 


252  The  Sabbath   Question. 

traffic,  and  passionate  excitements  of  gain  and 
loss,  fill  up  the  week.  Take  time  to-day  to 
think  of  Christ,  to  learn  of  Christ,  to  tell  your 
little  ones  of  Christ,  to  teach  Christ  to  those 
who  do  not  know  him,  to  open  the  door  of  your 
house  to  Christ,  and  let  him  come  and  make 
your  home  a  holy  place,  to  open  the  door  of 
your  heart  to  Christ,  and  let  him  enter  in  and 
sup  with  you,  and  you  with  him. 

Then,  secondly,  the  way  in  which  you  keep 
this  day  must  be  determined  by  the  love  you 
bear  your  neighbor.  Who  is  your  neighbor  ? 
Well,  for  example,  your  man-servant  and  your 
maid-servant  are  your  neighbors.  The  man 
who  takes  care  of  your  horses  is  your  neigh- 
bor. The  woman  who  prepares  your  dinner 
is  your  neighbor.  You  are  bound  by  the  law 
of  love  to  be  considerate  toward  them,  and  to 
secure  them  in  their  enjoyment  of  their  day 
of  rest,  and  to  give  them  the  opportunity  to 
think  of  Christ,  to  learn  of  Christ,  to  worship 
Christ.  Because  this  day  is  a  festival,  we 
might  properly  enough  celebrate  some  part 
of  it  with  feasting  and  with  M  pious  mirth,"  if 
it  were  not  for  this  consideration.     It  was  not 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  253 

that  the  day  might  be  a  fast-day  that  Moses 
commanded  not  to  kindle  fire  nor  to  cook  food 
upon  the  Sabbath  :  it  was  "  that  thy  manserv- 
ant and  thy  maidservant  may  rest  as  well  as 
thou."  So,  too,  it  is  not  that  the  day  is  any 
way  a  sorrowful  or  gloomy  day  to  us,  that  we 
content  ourselves  without  festivities,  which 
otherwise  we  might  enjoy ;  but  it  is  simply 
that  our  man-servant  and  maid-servant  may 
have  rest  as  well  as  we.  It  is  not  on  the 
letter  of  the  Jewish  law  that  we  ground  any 
obligation  of  this  sort.  Indeed,  we  do  not 
speak  of  it  as  obligation  anyway,  and  have 
no  right  to  lay  down  strict,  unbending  laws 
upon  such  matters.  Circumstances  alter  cases. 
Something,  for  example,  depends  upon  the  will- 
ingness, upon  the  Christian  liberty  and  love, 
even  of  our  man-servant  and  our  maid-servant, 
as  to  what  service  we  may  expect  from  them. 
And  it  is  to  the  spirit  of  Christian  liberty  and 
love,  and  to  that  only,  that  we  can  make  appeal. 
Only,  "  let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his 
own  mind." 

Then,  lastly,  love  to  our  own  souls  suggests 
what  I  have  called  the  spiritual  method  of  em- 


254  The  Sabbath   Question. 

ploying  the  Lord's  Day,  in  preference  to  the 
simply  sensuous  way  of  using  it.  Bodily  rest, 
indeed,  we  need.  Let  no  man  think  that  he 
can  do  without  it.  If  he  is  forced  by  higher 
duties  to  deprive  himself  of  it  on  Sunday,  as 
a  minister  is,  then  he  is  bound  to  take  it  on 
Saturday  or  on  Monday.  And  I  may  quote 
the  fourth  commandment  as  obliging  me  to 
observe  Monday  as  a  rest-day,  with  just  as 
much  emphasis,  and  no  more  than  that  with 
which  you  quote  it  for  the  observance  of  Sun- 
day. Make  this  Lord's  Day  a  day  of  rest  to 
your  bodies  and  your  minds.  Do  not  merely 
change  your  employments  of  the  week  for  dif- 
ferent but  not  less  wearisome  employments 
on  this  first  day.  The  cases  are  exceptional 
which  will  justify  you  in  doing  so.  Rest !  It 
is  a  privilege,  it  is  therefore  a  duty.  It  is 
especially  a  duty  in  this  restless  age  and  in 
this  restless  land.  Do  not  think  you  are  sin- 
ning if  you  sleep.  You  are  sinning  if  you 
think  so,  but  you  need  not  think  so.  Refresh 
your  body  in  such  ways  as  seem  to  you  best, 
considering  as  well  the  rights  and  the  neces- 
sities   of    your    neighbor   as    your  own.     Make 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  255 

the  day  a  welcome  day,  a  free  day,  a  happy 
day,  a  day  of  privilege.  Count  it  no  sin  to 
worship  God  through  the  enjoyment  of  his 
works  in  nature,  beneath  the  temple  of  the 
groves,  if  so  you  choose,  or  among  the  lilies 
of  the  field,  breathing  his  pure  air,  rejoicing  in 
his  blessed  light,  listening  to  the  birds  that 
sing  his  glory,  and  that  sing  because  he  works 
to  give  them  life  and  tune  their  songs,  —  count 
this  no  sin,  if  it  is  needful  to  you,  if  it  is  help- 
ful to  you,  if  there  are  no  higher  duties  to 
yourself  or  to  your  neighbors,  which  forbid  it. 
But  especially,  and  more  than  all,  employ  the 
day  for  spiritual  rest,  with  thoughts  of  Christ, 
with  meditation  on  the  truth  of  Christ,  with 
the  communion  of  the  saints  of  Christ,  with 
worship  in  your  home  and  in  the  church  of 
Christ,  "  not  forsaking  the  assembling  of  our- 
selves together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is ;  but 
exhorting  one  another  ;  and  so  much  the  more 
as  ye  see  the  day  approaching." 

"  So  much  the  more  as  ye  see  the  day  ap- 
proaching." What  day  ?  The  day  of  the 
Lord.  What  day  of  the  Lord  ?  The  day  of 
his    eternal    Sabbath  ;    the    day  of    which    this 


256  The  Sabbath   Question. 

first  day  of  the  week  is  the  perpetual  promise 
and  dawning  ;  the  day  of  God's  rest  ;  the  day 
of  the  rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of 
God.  For  it  is  approaching.  The  first  beams 
of  it  are  gilding  earth  and  heaven  even  now. 
It  is  not  a  day  of  hours  and  minutes.  It  is 
eternal.  It  is  not  a  day  that  comes  and  goes. 
It  "  remaineth."  It  is  not  a  day  upon  which 
there  comes  down  the  darkness  of  the  night. 
"There  is  no  night  there."  It  is  not  a  day 
upon  which  there  comes  in  the  turmoil  and 
distraction,  the  temptation  and  the  evil,  of  the 
week.  "  There  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  it 
any  thing  that  defileth,  neither  whatsoever 
worketh  abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie."  This 
is  the  Sabbath  day.  This  is  the  day  which  is 
approaching.  It  "  cometh,  and  now  is,"  in 
souls  that  love  the  Lord  and  know  his  peace 
and  share  his  righteousness.  And  it  shall 
shine  more  and  more  throughout  eternal  ages. 

Into  the  likeness  of  this  spiritual  day  should 
all  our  days  be  fashioned  ;  for  the  blessedness 
of  this  eternal  state  should  all  our  time  be  re- 
deemed. If  it  were  possible  ;  but  is  it  pos- 
sible ?       For    now,    as    when    Paul    wrote    and 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  257 

labored,  "  the  days  are  evil."  Toil  and  trouble, 
traffic  and  speculation,  the  cares  of  this  world, 
and  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  choke  them 
and  defile  them.  If,  then,  one  day  among  the 
seven,  as  the  weeks  roll  by,  can  be  rescued 
from  absorbing  care  and  from  deceitful  busi- 
ness, and  sanctified  to  the  peculiar  uses  of 
religion  and  of  charity,  in  God's  name,  and  in 
the  name  of  suffering  and  sinful  men,  let  it  be 
done.  If  there  can  be  one  day  secured  for 
rest  and  recreation  to  the  weary  sons  of  toil, 
one  day  for  worship  and  religious  thought 
and  teaching,  one  day  that  shall  prefigure  and 
present  by  prophecy,  and  even  by  foretaste, 
the  eternal  blessedness  of  heaven,  so  let  it  be ; 
and  let  it  be  this  first  day,  the  Lord's  Day,  full 
of  golden  memories  and  eloquent  associations. 
Let  it  be  kept  as  a  perpetual  privilege,  an 
inalienable  right,  not  with  profane  and  noisy 
mirth,  but  with  the  sacred  stillness  of  a  joy 
and  peace  which  the  world  cannot  give  nor 
take  away.  If  there  is  given  to  us,  by  usage, 
by  inheritance,  by  any  sanction,  such  a  day  as 
this,  we  cannot  afford  to  surrender  it,  we  can- 
not afford  to  be  remiss  in  our  observance  of  it, 
or  careless  in  our  appreciation  of  its  worth. 


258  The  Sabbath   Question. 

I  have  scarcely  left  myself  a  moment's  space 
in  which  to  speak  of  the  relation  of  the  civil 
law  to  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  But 
there  is  the  less  need  for  me  to  dwell  upon  this 
point,  because  the  text  itself,  as  I  have  now 
unfolded  it,  seems  to  indicate  the  true  nature 
of  that  relation.  If  it  be  true  that  this  observ- 
ance is  a  matter  for  the  individual  conscience, 
then  what  the  law  has  to  do  is  to  protect  the 
rights  of  the  individual  conscience.  It  is  bound 
to  do  no  more  than  this,  but  it  is  bound  to  do 
this.  If  any  man  or  any  community  is  fully 
persuaded  of  the  duty  or  the  privilege  of  sanc- 
tifying any  day  to  religious  uses,  they  are  to  be 
protected  in  the  performance  of  their  duty  and 
in  the  exercise  of  their  privilege  ;  their  worship 
is  to  be  defended  from  noise  and  disturbance ; 
their  rest  is  to  be  secured  from  the  demands  of 
business,  so  far  as  may  be  possible  without  in- 
fringement of  the  rights  of  others.  Moreover, 
the  State  has  an  undoubted  right,  which,  indeed, 
it  continually  exercises,  to  ordain  by  law  certain 
days  for  the  refreshment  and  recreation  of  its 
citizens,  —  on  sanitary  considerations,  or  for 
historical  considerations,  or  for  the  sake  of  any 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  259 

wise  expediency ;  and  to  require  that  on  such 
days  business  of  certain  sorts  shall  be  sus- 
pended ;  to  close  the  governmental  offices ;  to 
provide  that  contracts  made  on  such  days  are 
not  binding: ;  to  make  of  it  what  we  call  a  le°'al 
holiday.  It  may  do  this  every  week,  and  in 
effect  it  does  it  when  it  sanctions  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  Day ;  and  every  government 
which  is  fully  persuaded  of  the  need  of  such  a 
rest-day  or  holiday  is  even  bound  to  ordain  it. 
Only  I  would  have  you  remember  that  govern- 
ment cannot  make  a  day  holy,  that  force  can- 
not make  a  day  holy.  Acts  of  legislatures  and 
of  common  councils  may  keep  a  day  silent,  may 
make  it  quiet  ;  but  they  cannot  keep  it  holy : 
and  perhaps  they  will  discover  that  they  can 
keep  it  quiet  only  for  a  little  while.  Holiness 
is  a  thing  of  liberty,  not  a  thing  of  force.  If 
the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day  is  to  be  a 
holy  observance,  it  must  be  a  free  observance. 
If  men  come  to  take  Jesus  "by  force,  to  make 
him  a  king,"  he  will  withdraw  himself  alone. 
The  service  which  is  acceptable  in  his  sight 
must  be  a  reasonable  service,  a  willing  service. 
And,  as  I  have  said  already,  the  glory  of  this 


260  The  Sabbath   Question. 

Christian  festival  above  the  Jewish  festival  is» 
notably,  its  freedom. 

Now  I  have  finished  this  discussion,  and  I 
desire  only  to  recapitulate  the  argument  with 
all  possible  conciseness; 

i.  First  I  tried  to  show,  in  the  light  of  that 
venerable  story  in  Genesis,  interpreted  by  the 
commentary  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
what  the  Sabbath  is ;  affirming,  that,  in  the 
highest  and  truest  usage  of  the  word,  it  is  not  a 
day  of  hours  and  minutes,  but  an  eternal  state, 
spiritual,  heavenly ;  that  it  is  the  rest  of  God, 
and  the  rest  which  remaineth  for  the  people  of 
God. 

We  discovered  also  that  there  is  a  Sabbath 
work  which  God  is  doing,  —  the  work  of  mak- 
ing holy  the  creation  which  he  made  good  ;  and 
that,  according  as  the  people  of  God  enter  upon 
their  rest  (or  Sabbatism),  they  also  employ  it  in 
the  same  holy  activity,  in  being  good  and  doing 
good. 

And  we  discovered  also,  that,  though  the  real 
Sabbath  is  eternal  in  the  heavens,  there  may 
be  Sabbaths  in  some  lower  sense,  —  Sabbaths 
of  days,  Sabbaths  made  for  man,  shadows  and 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  261 

types  of  the  eternal  rest  in  God  for  which  man 
was  made :  and  that,  notably,  there  have  been 
two  such  Sabbaths  ;  the  weekly  Jewish  Sabbath 
on  the  seventh  day,  and  the  weekly  Christian 
Sabbath  on  the  first  day. 

2.  Then,  secondly,  we  discussed  the  origin 
and  history  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  and  inquired 
the  meaning  of  it.  We  found  that  it  was  insti- 
tuted in  the  wilderness  as  a  monumental  day, 
pointing  forever  backward  to  the  slavery  in 
Egypt  and  to  the  exodus  from  Egypt,  —  point- 
ing forever  forward,  also,  with  " illusive"  proph- 
ecy, to  liberty  and  rest,  —  at  first  to  Joshua  and 
Canaan,  then  to  David  and  the  earthly  king- 
dom, and  then  to  the  Son  of  David  and  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

3.  Then,  thirdly,  we  discussed  the  use  and 
indicated  the  abuse  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  :  we 
found  that  it  was  meant  to  be  a  privilege,  but 
was  perverted  to  be  an  irksome  bondage  ;  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  (as  a  Jew  "made  under  the 
law")  was  the  true  exemplar  of  the  right  use  of 
the  institution,  employing  it  lovingly,  gratefully, 
gladly,  as  an  ordinance  "made  for  man  ;"  and 
that  the  Pharisees  in   their  disputes  with  Jesus 


262  The  Sabbath   Question, 

represented  the  abuse  of  the  day,  making  it 
irksome  and  burdensome  upon  men,  as  if  men 
were  "made  for"  it. 

4.  Passing,  then,  to  the  Christian  festival  of 
the  Lord's  Day,  I  showed  how  it  came  to  be 
observed,  and,  from  the  earliest  ages  of  the 
Christian  church,  has  always  been  observed,  as 
a  day  of  sacred  privilege ;  I  reminded  you  of 
the  august  significance  of  this  first  day  of  the 
week,  —  significance  at  once  historic  and  pro- 
phetic ;  and  I  insisted,  that  not  by  the  force  of 
the  Jewish  commandment,  but  by  the  sanction 
of  most  venerable  usage,  by  the  dictate  of 
manifest  expediency,  and  so  by  the  operation 
of  the  Christian  law  of  love,  it  is  to  us  a  weekly 
Sabbath,  to  be  welcomed  and  dearly  cherished 
as  an  earnest  of  the  real  and  perfect  Sabbath. 

5.  Continuing  the  argument,  I  also  pointed 
out  the  greater  glory  of  the  Christian  Sabbath 
in  comparison  with  the  Jewish,  as  consisting, 
notably,  in  these  three  points  :  (1)  that  it  is  a 
free  day,  not  resting  upon  commandments  writ- 
ten and  graven  in  stones,  but  on  the  voluntary 
and  reasonable  service  of  loving  hearts  ;  (2)  that 
it  is  fast  coming  to  be  a  universal  day,  and  not 


Right  Observance  of  the  Lord's  Day.  263 

a  day  for  one  nation  ;  and  (3)  that  it  is  a  more 
spiritual  day,  pointing,  not  through  cloudy 
types  and  shadows,  but  directly,  up  to  the  spir^ 
itual  and  eternal  rest,  and  to  the  risen  Christ 
who  gives  it. 

6.  And  now  I  have  indicated  what  seems  to 
me  the  proper  method  of  observing  this  Lord's 
Day;  warning  against  bondage  on  the  one 
hand,  and  against  license  on  the  other. 

So  we  cease  the  discussion  where  we  began 
it,  with  the  thought,  the  hope,  the  expectation, 
of  the  rest  into  which  God  is  entered,  and 
which  remaineth  for  his  people ;  and  with  the 
solemn  undertone  of  blended  encouragement 
and  warning,  which  has  sounded  all  the  while, 
—  Take  heed,  "a  promise  being  left  of  entering 
into  rest,"  that  none  of  us  "seem  to  come 
short  of  it." 


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